Iran expelled more than 1.8 million undocumented migrants who are mainly Afghans over the past year, an interior ministry official said on Sunday, adding that at least 800,000 more must leave under the government’s removal plan.
The program began with classifying migrants into legal and illegal groups to provide services to the former and facilitate the return of the latter, Nader Yarahmadi, Head of the Interior Ministry’s Center for Foreign Nationals and Migrants.
“From the total 1,833,636 undocumented migrants who left, 1.2 million departures occurred this year alone,” Yarahmadi said.
“More than 70 percent of these undocumented migrants went back home with their families,” he said.
Yarahmadi added that the expulsions are not over. “At least 800,000 more people must be removed as undocumented migrants, which is on the agenda in the next phases,” he said.
Crackdown after ceasefire with Israel
Iran launched a sweeping crackdown on Afghan migrants in the wake of a ceasefire with Israel, targeting them for deportation and alleged security threats.
Taliban authorities have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in western Afghanistan due to the rapid influx.
Over the decades, Afghan migrants have been treated as expendable tools in Tehran’s shifting policies in the region. They were recruited to fight in Syria as part of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, exploited as cheap undocumented labor inside Iran, and periodically threatened with mass expulsion in bouts of official populism. During moments of domestic discontent, Afghan migrants became convenient targets to deflect public anger.
Following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, a massive influx of Afghan refugees entered Iran and as many as two million Afghans crossed the border within two years.
Rather than developing a comprehensive migration policy, authorities allowed border regions to turn into chaotic transit points run by smugglers and corrupt officials.
Officials insist the expulsions will continue until the number of foreign residents matches what they describe as the country’s designed capacity.
“We know senior officials and commanders did not carry phones, but their interlocutors, security guards and drivers had phones, they did not take precautions seriously and this is how most of them were traced,” the report said citing Iran's former deputy vice-president Sasan Karimi.
An Israeli defense official told the paper: “Using so many bodyguards is a weakness that we imposed on them, and we were able to take advantage of that.”
The tactic enabled Israeli warplanes on June 16 to strike a bunker in western Tehran where President Masoud Pezeshkian, the heads of the judiciary and intelligence ministry, and senior commanders were holding an emergency security meeting, the report added.
Earlier this month, the chief of staff to Iran's president said Israel’s attack on a Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) meeting on June 16 was a targeted attempt to kill Masoud Pezeshkian, who escaped with a minor injury.
Israel targeted the building’s entrances and exit points with six bombs to block escape routes and cut off airflow, Revolutionary Guards affiliated Fars News reported last month.
None of the leaders were killed, but several guards died outside, according to The Times.
Bodyguards had long been excluded from strict phone bans imposed on top commanders, even after earlier assassinations of nuclear scientists and military figures, The New York Times reported.
Lapse now addressed
That lapse has since been addressed, with guards now restricted to carrying only walkie-talkies, the report said.
The strikes formed part of a broader Israeli campaign that killed at least 30 senior commanders and more than a dozen nuclear scientists during the war’s first week.
Iranian officials later said dozens of suspects from the military and government had been arrested or placed under house arrest on suspicion of spying for Israel.
President Pezeshkian, who was lightly injured in the attack, later told clerics: “There was only one hole, and we saw there was air coming and we said, we won’t suffocate. Life hinges on one second.”
He added that if the leadership had been killed, “people would have lost hope.”
The announcement was made by Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the group’s Supreme Political Council.
According to the Houthis, al-Rahawi and his colleagues were holding a cabinet meeting when the strike took place.
Al-Rahawi had served as prime minister since 2024, though his role was seen largely as administrative. The council announced that Mohamed Ahmad Moftah has been appointed as acting prime minister.
The Israeli military said on Friday that its air force carried out a broad operation against Houthi positions in Sanaa, targeting senior political and military leaders.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported the strike likely killed the entire Houthi cabinet, including al-Rahawi and up to 12 ministers.
The fresh airstrikes came after the Israeli military concluded that the Houthis had used cluster munitions in one of their ballistic missile attacks on the Jewish State.
Houthis ready to fight back
After confirming the deaths of the group’s senior officials, the Houthi defense minister announced that the Houthis are ready to confront Israel.
The Houthis have been launching attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait, and the Gulf of Aden since the outbreak of the Gaza war. Their operations, which have also extended into the Indian Ocean, have repeatedly disrupted maritime security.
The group has also launched missiles and drones toward Israel, framing its attacks as support for Palestinians. While the United States says it recently secured a halt to Houthi strikes on American vessels, the Houthis have said the truce does not apply to Israel and vowed to continue their attacks.
