On Wednesday, August 7, 2024, a video depicting violent actions by police forces against an Afghan teenager circulated on social media. These officers, following orders from their superiors, were reportedly engaged in “rounding up” Afghans in Absard, Damavand. According to reports, the regime’s forces pursued and arrested a 15-year-old teenager who has impaired vision and hearing. The teenager, named Mehdi, who was on his way to work, tried to explain to the officers that he had an official census document. However, instead of listening, the officers threw him to the ground. One of the officers pressed his knee on Mehdi’s neck in a manner similar to American police tactics, while Mehdi struggled and pleaded, “Uncle, let me go!” Another officer grabbed his leg. Several women present at the scene, including Mehdi’s mother, attempted to rescue him, but the officers also assaulted Mehdi’s mother.
Some social media users correctly pointed out the similarity between this scene and the behavior of racist American police officers in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, noting that the Islamic Republic hypocritically tried to portray itself as a defender of the oppressed in America during that year. However, the suffering the regime and employers have inflicted on Afghan workers over the past four decades undermined that hypocrisy.
At the same time as the video of this incident from Monday, August 5, was being circulated, the commander of the police forces stated that “the policy and plan is for the return of all undocumented foreigners to their home countries.”
Earlier, Ahmad Vahidi, the Interior Minister of the thirteenth government, announced that a bill to “deal with undocumented foreigners” would be presented to the parliament, stating that “undocumented foreigners must return.”
Afghans, who make up the largest migrant population in Iran, have never been officially recognized as refugees by the government. The government has completely banned their residence in at least 19 provinces and restricted their employment to jobs deemed “menial.” On August 6, in Alborz province, it was announced that undocumented foreigners are not allowed to live or work there. The Director-General of Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Affairs in Alborz said that a plan for collecting small financial resources from foreign nationals was implemented by the National Migration Organization, which requires every foreign national who wants to stay in Iran to insure themselves and all their family members and deposit 100 million tomans as a bond with the National Bank. This makes it clear that undocumented migrants are not wealthy individuals but impoverished workers who cannot afford insurance or the 100 million toman bond.
The regime-controlled newspapers have recently been making baseless accusations against Afghan migrants, without any mention of the possible breaking of the Afghan teenager’s neck. However, the men, women, and children among these migrants are workers who, with the lowest wages and complete deprivation of all legal and labor rights, are doing dangerous jobs, such as well-digging, especially in Tehran, and working in dilapidated buildings.
The oppression against Afghan migrant workers is a continuation of the tragic injustices that have been inflicted on them for 45 years by the Islamic Republic, greedy employers, and racist nationalists. Afghan youths have not only been cash cows for greedy employers but have also been cannon fodder in the Iran-Iraq War and the war in Syria as part of the regime’s inhumane policies. In addition to seeking more money from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the regime also intends to recruit soldiers for its proxy forces. For a young person who faces death if they return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, it is easier to be coerced or enticed by threats and bribes to join the centers designated by the Quds Force.
The reality is that the fate of Afghan migrants in Iran is closely tied to the fate of the Iranian people in many ways. Afghan workers are class allies and share the same destiny as Iranian workers. Both live under the brutal rule of Islamic governments. Leftist and communist forces have always supported migrants and have defended Afghan migrant workers in various ways. They have condemned the actions of employers and the Islamic government in this regard and have also exposed the bourgeois right-wing opposition, which effectively shares the Islamic Republic’s stance on Afghan migrants.
In the current situation, where these suffering people are under such attack, and the regime’s officials and loyal media are agitating against them, it is necessary to defend them more actively than before. Wherever they are attacked, it is essential to stand up to the aggressors and push them back. This is what the women did in defense of Mehdi, the captive Afghan teenager, in protest against the attacking police.
