accusing it of using Afghan refugees living in Iran to destabilize Afghanistan whenever the Afghan government balks at doing what the Islamic Republic wants.
In recent years, Iran has frequently swept up large numbers of Afghan refugees living in Iran and dumped them over the border, where Afghan officials say they are overwhelmed and unable to handle the floods of returnees.
The allegations of using refugees as a whip with which to bring Afghanistan to heel is made in a report published this month by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC. The report, titled, “Iranian Influence in Afghanistan: Refugees as Political Instruments,” was written by Ahmad Majidyar and Ali Alfoneh, who re both with AEI.
With the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 and the inauguration of a Western-backed government in Afghanistan, the Iranian government took a tough line with the Afghan refugees. “It is now time for them to return,” said Ahmad Hossaini, the senior Interior Ministry official dealing in refugee affairs, in March 2002.
In April 2002, Iran signed a trilateral agreement with Afghanistan and the UN’s High Commission for Refugees to facilitate repatriation of Afghans. By April 2004, 730,000 Afghans had voluntarily returned to Afghanistan.
But the report says that when President Ahmadi-nejad took office in August 2005, the Iranian government stepped up involuntary repatriations of Afghans. On March 12, 2006, Hossaini announced that 350,000 Afghans had been forcibly repatriated in 2005 and warned that the Iranian government would apply “new measures” against Afghans who resisted.
Forced evictions continued over subsequent years, and, in January 2008, Taghi Ghaemi, Hossaini’s replacement at the Interior Ministry, threatened the 1.5 million “illegal Afghans” in Iran with “five years of imprisonment” or “internment in camps” if they refused repatriation.
Iranian leaders justify their actions by citing problems Afghan refugees cause in Iran, such as unemployment, drug trafficking and other criminal activity. Afghan officials, however, are asserting that Iran is using the refugees as a destabilizing political tool against Afghanistan.
Majidyar and Alfoneh write, “The Ahmadi-nejad government successfully uses the refugee issue to increase its leverage over Hamid Karzai’s government in Afghanistan. Whenever Afghan-istan’s policies displease Tehran, the Iranian government threatens to expel all Afghans living in Iran. Tehran understands that the fragile Afghan government lacks the capacity to absorb a large number of returnees under current security and economic conditions.
“At times, it has dumped thousands of Afghans into lawless areas in western Afghanistan without advance coordination with either Afghan authorities or international organizations. Such mass deportations trigger humanitarian crises, undermine security in southern and western Afghanistan, and cause political turmoil in Kabul,” they report.
As one example, they cite 2007, when the Afghan parliament impeached Karzai’s ministers for refugees and foreign affairs after Iran forcibly repatriated over 80,000 Afghans. The impeachments, which they say were directed by Iranian supporters within the parliament, sparked a constitutional crisis in Kabul, as Karzai rejected the parliament’s dismissal of Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta.
Spanta said Iran launched the expulsions to protest Afghanistan’s acquiescence to a formal NATO military presence in Afghanistan, to compel Afghanistan to support Iran’s nuclear program, and to ensure Iran’s access to Helmand River waters flowing into Iran. Only after Karzai made a personal appeal to Ahmadi-nejad did Tehran halt the deportations. Majidyar and Alfoneh say it is unclear what concessions Kabul offered Tehran.
But deportations soon resumed.
The two researchers said, “Iran systematically uses forcible repatriation of Afghan refugees and migrant workers to spark a humanitarian and security crisis in the western parts of Afghanistan. In doing so, the Islamic Republic is telling Kabul that the key to western Afghanistan’s security is in Tehran, not in Washington, DC This shows that Iran is positioning itself to have a presence in the region long after US forces leave.”
Majidyar and Alfoneh say Iran has also used mass deportations to facilitate the infiltration of foreign terrorists into western Afghanistan. Afghan border guards in Islam Qala, the main border crossing between Iran and Herat, say there are no procedures to monitor returnees and check their nationality.
They quote Abdullah Achakzai, a border police officer, as saying, “We have caught Arab and Iranian citizens trying to enter Afghanistan without the proper documentation, and have turned them over to the National Directorate of Security. But we cannot check everybody so carefully. We do not have enough officers, or the right equipment.” He said border police had captured an Iranian citizen pretending to be an Afghan refugee. “He had maps with him of Herat airport and other documents concerning the 207th Zafar [Afghan National Army] corps.”
The writers conclude that with more than 2 million Afghan refugees still living in Iran, “Tehran will continue to play the refugee card to pressure Kabul and harm US-led efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.”