PARWAN, Afghanistan, November 13 (IPS) – When Roya, a former police officer underneath Afghanistan’s Republic authorities, left the nation along with her household, she felt a terrific sense of aid, having escaped from the horrors of Taliban rule. She by no means imagined that lower than three years later she can be pressured again into the identical situations, solely worse.
She now spends sleepless nights, fearful of being recognized as a former police officer, a label that carries dire penalties.
Roya, 52, is a mom of 4. Through the Republic years, she labored within the girls’s search unit of Parwan province, incomes sufficient to assist her household.
When the federal government collapsed and the Taliban returned to energy in 2021, she, like a whole bunch of different girls in uniform, turned the goal of direct and oblique threats. Worry for her life and dignity pushed her onto the trail of migration. She fled to Iran, the place she and her six-member household spent a number of years in relative security.
“In Iran, I labored in a tomato paste manufacturing facility”, she remembers. “We had a home, we ate properly, and above all I had peace of thoughts as a result of we lived in relative safety”, says Roya.
Her daughters additionally discovered work. “Zakia, 23, who had accomplished her first 12 months at Kabul College previous to our departure, discovered a job in a big dwelling home equipment retailer as a salesperson and laptop operator. Setayesh, who turned 21 this 12 months, threw herself enthusiastically right into a job at a magnificence salon, specializing in hair braiding. Everybody had one thing to do and earned an revenue.”
However that stability didn’t final. Escalating political tensions between Iran and Israel quickly triggered harsh crackdowns on Afghan migrants in Iran.
“At two within the afternoon, Iranian officers entered our dwelling with none warning”, says Roya. “We had no time to assemble our belongings, and even a lot much less to get well the lease for the home we have been residing in, she says.”
She and her daughters have been forcibly deported again to Afghanistan whereas the boys have been nonetheless at work. Every week later, one in all her sons referred to as from the Islam Qala border, and the household was lastly reunited.
Roya now lives in Afghanistan underneath extraordinarily troublesome situations. She has no job, no assist, and carries a continuing worry that her previous work with the police might put her and her household in peril.
“Each evening I fall asleep in worry, frightened that my identification may be uncovered. I don’t know what is going to occur in the event that they discover out I beforehand labored within the police service.”
She is one in all a number of hundred girls who have been forcibly expelled from Iran, again into a rustic the place girls who had beforehand labored within the safety forces are handled like criminals and the place the reminiscence of their uniform has grow to be a nightmare of imprisonment.
Beneath Taliban rule, former navy and civil service girls are pressured to cover their identities. Some have even burned their work paperwork. Others, like Roya, keep inside their houses, keep away from social contact, and spend their nights haunted by the worry of being acknowledged.
“We determined to flee to Iran to rid ourselves of the strict legal guidelines of the Taliban. However now we’re caught in the identical restrictions once more, this time, with empty fingers and much more exhausted spirits,” Roya says.
Roya and her household now stay quickly in a relative’s dwelling in Parwan province, dealing with an unsure future.
The widespread deportation of Afghan migrants from Iran is especially consequential for girls whose scenario has progressively worsened underneath Taliban rule. Job alternatives for them and participation in public life are shrinking by the day.
The Taliban have stripped girls of the suitable to work, training, journey, and even the easy freedom to go to parks. Ladies who as soon as served their authorities at the moment are handled as second-class residents in their very own houses.
Roya’s story mirrors the life expertise of a whole bunch of girls – the repercussion of a mix of dysfunctional regional politics throughout the borders and home spiritual extremist authorities illiberal of girls’s rights.
Roya additionally recounts the story of her neighbor, Mohammad Yousuf, a 34-year-old building employee, who was violently crushed by Iranian officers. He was thrown right into a automobile with out receiving his wages for a number of months or permitting him to gather his belongings from the small room the place he had been residing.
In the meantime, the tempo of deportations of Afghan migrants from Iran has accelerated sharply in 2025, in response to a number of home and worldwide media shops, together with Iran Time, Afghanistan Worldwide, and Iran Worldwide, in addition to worldwide organizations.
The Worldwide Group for Migration has reported that since early Could 2025, a wave of pressured mass deportations has taken place, primarily affecting households in contrast to earlier tendencies, which largely concerned single males.
Within the first 5 months of 2025, greater than 457,100 individuals returned from Iran. Of those, about 72% have been deported forcibly, whereas the remaining returned voluntarily.
In a single 12 months, over 1.2 million individuals have been deported from the Islam Qala border into Afghanistan.
The deportation marketing campaign’s peak coincided with an increase in Iran-Israel tensions in June this 12 months. Greater than 500 000 individuals have been deported in simply 16 days between June 24 and July 9. In whole, by early July 2025, over 1.1 million individuals had been forcibly returned. Day by day deportation charges of as much as 30,000 individuals have been reported.
Iran has employed harsh and infrequently violent strategies to expel Afghan migrants. These measures embody office inspections, nighttime arrests, dwelling raids, and the destruction of authorized paperwork, even passports and legitimate visas. Quite a few instances of violence, mistreatment, and deprivation of primary providers corresponding to healthcare and meals have been reported.
Worldwide humanitarian and human rights organizations have described these actions as violations of the precept of non-refoulement and a severe risk to refugees and have referred to as for an instantaneous halt to pressured deportations and respect for authorized rights.
Experiences from the United Nations and human rights organizations point out that Afghan returnees particularly girls, minorities, and people who labored with the earlier authorities face a excessive danger of arbitrary detention and torture.
Iran has said that it intends to deport a complete of 4 million Afghan migrants, of which round 1.2 million have already been despatched again.
Iranian officers have claimed that the deportations can be “dignified and gradual,” however proof exhibits that strain, threats, and arrests with out consent have been widespread.
The well being, social, and safety penalties of those returns have positioned a heavy burden on Afghanistan, overwhelming border crossings and reception camps. Many are enduring excessive warmth of as much as 50°C, with out entry to water or shelter.
In keeping with a UN report printed in July, 1.35 million Afghan refugees have been pressured to depart Iran in latest months. Many have been arrested and deported, whereas others returned voluntarily for worry of arbitrary arrest.
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