Shamsi was once more reminded of how vulnerable she and her family are on Friday, June 13 when Israeli missiles started to fall on Tehran.
The 34-year-old Afghan mother of two was working at her sewing job in north Tehran. She ran home to find her daughters, both five and seven, huddled beneath a table in horror as she ran to the office in a state of panic and fear.
Shamsi fled Afghanistan’s Taliban-ruled country last year, hoping that Iran would provide security. Now, undocumented and terrified, she finds herself caught in yet another dangerous situation – this time with no shelter, no status, and no way out.
For security reasons, Shamsi told Al Jazeera that although she had escaped the Taliban, bombs were still pouring down on her and that she had stayed inside. “We were here for safety, but we were unsure of our destination.”
Shamsi, a former activist in Afghanistan, and her husband, a former soldier in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan before the Taliban returned to power in 2021, fled to Iran on a temporary visa, fearful of reprisals from the Taliban over their work. However, they were unable to renew their visas because it required them to leave Iran and travel through Afghanistan, which is likely to be too dangerous.
Iran hasn’t had a pleasant life. Without legal residency, Shamsi has no protection at work, no bank account, and no access to aid. She claimed that Iranians and any other international organizations did not assist them.
It’s difficult to contact family or find information due to Iran’s internet blackouts.
“Without a driver’s licence, we can’t move around. Before Israel began bombing, she claimed that they were able to circumvent restrictions on where they could buy food before it became much harder to do so once the police began to inspect every intersection in Tehran.
About 750, 000 registered Afghans are among Iran’s 3.5 million refugees and people living in refugee-like conditions. But more than 2.6 million are undocumented individuals. Thousands of Afghans, including activists, journalists, former soldiers, and other vulnerable people, have entered Iran seeking refuge since the Taliban’s return to power and the US’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
During the 12-day conflict, many Afghans were repeatedly reminded of their extreme vulnerability: unprotected and unable to access emergency assistance or even reliable information during air raids because the internet was shut down for extended periods of time. The majority of these are undocumented.
While many fled Tehran for the north of Iran, Afghan refugees like Shamsi and her family had nowhere to go.
On June 22, an explosion shook her neighborhood, breaking the apartment’s windows. She said, “I was awake until 3 a.m., and then another explosion woke me up.”
An entire residential apartment was levelled near her building. In order to be prepared if something happens to our building, I prepared a bag with my children’s main items.
Qatar and the US brokered the ceasefire on June 23, which was a great relief, but Shamsi’s family is now almost without money. Her employer, who used to pay her in cash, has left the city and won’t answer her calls. She claimed that “he’s vanished.” He simply said, “You’re an Afghan migrant, get out, out, get out. “When I [previously] requested my unpaid wages.
Conflict costs in terms of human lives.
The 12-day conflict with Israel has sharply reawakened feelings of trauma and displacement for all Afghans trapped in Iran, including those who were forced to flee or those who stayed in their homes.
Furthermore, according to the Iranian health authorities, three Afghan migrants – identified as Hafiz Bostani, Abdulwali and Habibullah Jamshidi – were among the 610 people killed in the recent strikes.
In an Israeli strike on their construction site in Tehran’s Tehranpars neighborhood on June 18, 18-year-old Afghan laborer Abdulwali was killed and several others were hurt. Abdulwali left his studies in Afghanistan about six months ago to work in Iran to provide for his family, according to the victim’s father. In a video widely shared by Abdulwali’s friends, his colleagues at the construction site can be heard calling to him to leave the building as loud explosions echo in the background.
Since the Israeli strikes, there have been no more missing Afghans. Afghani resident of Takhar province in Afghanistan Akimi claimed to have been in Iran for four days without communication from three of his grandsons. “They were stuck inside a construction site in central Tehran with no food”, he said.
He explained that when they heard the sound of bombs, they retreated to the basement of the still-unfinished apartment building. The nearby shops were shut down, and their Iranian employers have since fled the city without paying their wages.
Even if they have survived, he added, they are undocumented. According to Hakimi, “if they get out, the police will deport them.”
From one danger zone to another
UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett urged all parties to ensure the safety of Afghan migrants in Iran during the conflict, citing immediate humanitarian measures and serious risks.
Laila Forugh Mohammadi, an activist from Afghanistan who currently resides outside the country, is using social media to spread awareness about Iran’s precarious situation. “People can’t move, can’t speak”, she said. The majority of them lack legal documentation, which puts them in danger of even being able to recover unpaid wages from frightened employers.
She also pointed out that there is no government organization supporting Afghans in the midst of the Iran-Israel conflict. “There’s no bureaucracy to process their situation. For the safety of our country’s citizens, we feared an increase in the violence between Iran and Israel, she said.
In the end, those who were able to leave Iran’s most hazardous areas largely did so with the aid of Afghan organizations.
The Afghan Women Activists ‘ Coordinating Body (AWACB), part of the European Organisation for Integration, helped hundreds of women – many of whom fled the Taliban because of their activist work – and their families to flee. They retreated to safer cities like Mashhad in the northeast of the nation from high-risk locations like Tehran, Isfahan, and Qom, which are sites of significant nuclear installations that Israel and the US both targeted. In addition, the group assisted in facilitating phone calls to Afghan families during Iran’s ongoing internet blackouts.
“Our capacity is limited. Before the ceasefire, Dr. Patoni Teichmann, the group’s founder, told Al Jazeera, “We can only support official members of AWACB.” Out of our current 450 members, 103 women have been evacuated, the majority of whom are Afghan women’s rights activists and protesters who gathered against the women’s education ban and fled Afghanistan.
I’m unable to return to the Taliban.
Despite the dangers and difficulties they might face there, some chose to return despite Iran’s recent plans to deport up to two million undocumented Afghans during the 12-day conflict.
World Vision Afghanistan reported that, throughout the 12-day war, approximately 7, 000 Afghans were crossing daily from Iran into Afghanistan via the Islam Qala border in Herat. According to field representative Mark Cal, “People are arriving with only the clothes on their backs.” They are “traumatized, perplexed, and returning to a nation that is still experiencing economic and social collapse.”
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has voiced grave concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation for Afghans in Iran, adding that it is monitoring reports that people are on the move within Iran and that some are leaving for neighbouring countries.
Tensions continue to rise even as Israeli strikes come to an end, and Afghan refugees are expected to emigrate from Iran.
There is, however, no place left for many.
Back in northern Tehran, Shamsi sits beside her daughter watching an Iranian news channel. She softly replies, “We came here for safety.” When asked what she would do if things get worse, Shamsi says, “I’ll stay here with my family.” I can’t go back to the Taliban”.
