For the first time, Iran has been named among the world’s top ten most neglected displacement crises, according to the 2024 annual report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). This marks a sobering acknowledgment of the growing humanitarian emergency stemming from Iran’s hosting of millions of Afghan refugees—a crisis that has received scant global attention despite its scale and severity.
A Crisis Overlooked by the World
Published on June 3, the NRC report highlights how Iran’s worsening refugee crisis has been systematically overlooked by the international community. The report attributes Iran’s inclusion in the list to a change in NRC’s methodology, which now considers countries that are themselves in crisis while simultaneously hosting large displaced populations.
Iran currently shelters more than six million Afghans, including approximately 3.8 million registered asylum seekers. Many of the rest live without legal status or documentation. Yet, international media and policymakers have remained largely focused on Iran’s geopolitical tensions rather than the mounting humanitarian needs within its borders.
Mounting Pressures and a Fragile Host System
The report outlines how Afghan refugees in Iran are experiencing deepening hardship due to a convergence of economic pressures, harsh sanctions, and increasingly punitive domestic policies. In 2024 alone, Iran deported an estimated 750,000 Afghans and announced plans to expel up to two million more by March 2025, citing economic and security concerns. These expulsions are often conducted without legal due process and under inhumane conditions at the border.
The Iranian government has simultaneously imposed new restrictions on access to essential public services, including healthcare, housing, and education, for undocumented Afghans. Since March 2025, most Afghan migrants without valid documentation have been denied even the most basic of rights unless they fall into narrowly defined eligible categories.
Eroding Legal Protections and Growing Xenophobia
Iran’s refugee registration systems—primarily through the “Amayesh Card” and temporary census documents—have become increasingly restrictive. Many Afghan refugees now find it nearly impossible to obtain or renew legal status, pushing them further into the margins of society. Without proper documentation, they are barred from formal employment, education, social security, and the ability to own property or even rent housing in many areas.
Afghan refugees are frequently treated as second-class citizens, facing systemic discrimination, restrictions on movement, and bans on residing in designated “no-go areas” across the country. Anti-Afghan sentiment has also been fueled by Iranian state media and government narratives, leading to a surge in hate speech, physical assaults, and xenophobic intimidation.
Human rights organizations have condemned reports of torture, abuse, and degrading treatment by Iranian security forces. Videos showing Afghan refugees being beaten and threatened at border crossings have sparked outrage. Amnesty International and other groups have documented a pattern of arbitrary arrests, cruel treatment, and forced returns.
Humanitarian Funding Gaps and International Inaction
Despite the urgent nature of the crisis, the humanitarian response remains severely underfunded. In 2024, only 25 percent of the required funding for refugee-related aid in Iran was provided. NRC warns that without immediate international action, the situation will deteriorate even further.
The council emphasizes that this is not a new crisis. Iran has hosted Afghan refugees for over four decades, initially welcoming those fleeing the Soviet invasion, later the civil war, and most recently, the Taliban’s return to power. Yet today, this protracted displacement has evolved into an emergency that is both invisible and untreated on the global stage.
A Looming Catastrophe
NRC warns that by September 2025, a significant number of Afghans who recently lost their legal status could be forcibly deported. Given the volatile conditions in Afghanistan—marked by Taliban repression, poverty, and insecurity—many of these individuals are likely to return irregularly to Iran or become trapped in cycles of border crossings and statelessness.
Iran is not alone in this neglect. Alongside it, NRC’s 2024 report lists nine other countries with forgotten displacement crises: Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Cameroon, and Honduras. These nations host millions of refugees despite facing internal challenges, yet they remain low on the global humanitarian agenda due to a lack of political will, media attention, and donor support.
A Call to Action
The NRC’s findings are a call to the international community: to not only acknowledge the scale of the crisis in Iran but to act. This includes increasing humanitarian funding, protecting the rights of Afghan refugees, and pressuring Iranian authorities to halt forced deportations and discriminatory practices.
Without urgent attention, millions of vulnerable people risk being pushed further into insecurity—ignored not just by their host country, but by a world that has chosen to look away.
.){kind=link}