Nader Yarahmadi, head of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said that from March 2024 to March 2025, a total of 1,579 foreign national children were deported from Iran along with their families.
According to Iranian state media, Yarahmadi confirmed that deportation efforts targeting child labourers, many of whom are Afghan, will persist. He also stated that among 937 immigrant children permitted to remain in Iran with their families, authorities have secured written pledges ensuring they will no longer be involved in street begging.
Iranian officials often refer to Afghan migrants as “foreign nationals,” though Afghans make up the overwhelming majority of the country’s immigrant child labour population. Last year, Ali Kazemi, secretary of Iran’s National Body on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, reported that 85 percent of child labourers in Tehran were Afghan.
The continued expulsion of Afghan child labourers comes amid a broader surge in deportations from both Iran and Pakistan, creating significant humanitarian and logistical challenges for Afghanistan. Despite these difficulties, the Taliban has maintained cooperation with the Iranian government on migrant repatriation.
Human rights groups have criticised the mass deportations, citing risks to children’s safety and well-being upon return to Afghanistan, where living conditions remain precarious due to ongoing conflict, economic collapse, and restricted access to education and services.
