Iran expels Afghan refugees over Mossad spy fears

Iran has launched a sweeping campaign to expel Afghan refugees, driven by fears that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has used Afghan nationals to infiltrate the country.

In his vlog, Kamran Khan said that Iran’s crackdown on Afghan refugees—legal and illegal—intensified dramatically during and after the recent Iran-Israel conflict. The Iranian government, he said, now views many Afghan migrants as potential Israeli agents.

“There is no doubt now that Mossad had a footprint across Iran,” Kamran Khan said. “And Tehran believes Afghan refugees were part of this infiltration.”

According to Khan, Iranian intelligence agencies are linking the presence of Afghan refugees to Mossad activities inside Iran, although the government has not officially disclosed how many suspected spies it has identified.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad’s own chief have both publicly claimed that Israeli agents remain active within Iranian borders, even after the military conflict.

Khan said Tehran’s suspicions likely hardened after Israeli strikes exposed internal vulnerabilities, pushing Iran’s security establishment to take extreme steps—including the forced expulsion of Afghan migrants.

“Iran has labeled this a national security matter,” Khan said. “Even refugees with legal residency are being deported.”

900,000 Afghans expelled since January

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that between June 1 and July 5 alone, more than 449,000 Afghan nationals were returned from Iran to Afghanistan. That brings the total number expelled since January to over 906,000.

Most were forcibly removed, according to the International Organization for Migration, which estimates that 70% of those deported did not leave voluntarily.

Before the purge began, over 3.5 million Afghan refugees lived in Iran, of whom 2.6 million were unregistered. Tehran alone hosted around 1.5 million Afghans.

Initially, Iranian authorities focused on unregistered migrants. But Khan said that since the outbreak of war with Israel, the Iranian state has started treating all Afghan nationals as potential security threats.

“Now, all Afghans are viewed through the lens of espionage,” he said.

Refugees harassed, detained

According to Khan, Iranian police detain Afghans on sight, pack them into buses, and transfer them to holding centers before pushing them across the Afghan border.

Many Afghans in Iran are second- or third-generation migrants who have never lived in Afghanistan. Some were born in the 1980s and 1990s and now face deportation to a country they’ve never known.

In public spaces, Khan said, Afghans are often harassed and labeled “spies” by locals. The New York Times also reported rising hostility toward Afghans, who are now scapegoated for taking Iranian jobs and resources.

A muted Taliban response

Surprisingly, the Taliban government in Kabul has not issued any strong condemnation of Iran’s actions, unlike its vocal objections when Pakistan launched a similar deportation campaign in 2023–2024.

Khan pointed out this silence may be linked to diplomatic considerations. Taliban officials have instead called for a “dignified return” of their citizens and proposed an “integrated action plan” with Iran and Pakistan.

Afghanistan is facing a mounting humanitarian crisis as refugees flood in from both Iran and Pakistan. Between September 2023 and June 2025, over 3.5 million Afghans returned from abroad—1 million of them from Pakistan alone.

But Afghanistan is ill-equipped to absorb them. U.S. aid to the country has collapsed since the Taliban takeover in 2021, shrinking from $3.2 billion to just $538 million. Of the UN’s 2025 humanitarian appeal, less than 25% has been funded.

“There are no jobs, no homes, no aid,” Khan said. “And the international community is watching from a distance.”

Iran’s official line is that the deportations are aimed at reducing illegal immigration. But Khan suggests something deeper is at play.

“This isn’t just about paperwork,” he said. “This is about national security, espionage paranoia, and geopolitical fallout.”

Iran’s interior minister recently claimed that Afghan migrants had entered Iran as part of foreign intelligence plots. U.S. President Donald Trump also alleged that Mossad had gained access to Iran’s nuclear facilities using internal assets.

For Khan, this raises an urgent question: “What will happen to the millions who have nowhere else to go?”