Afghan refugees under immense pressure in Iran, and the Taliban demanding dollars
Afghan immigrants and refugees face ever increasing hardships to stay in Iran. Not only is the country rounding up and deporting any migrants whose papers aren’t in perfect order, but Iranian officials exploit the vulnerability of its Afghan population by demanding bribes and extracting kickbacks of every shape and sort. The strict immigration regulations of the Islamic Republic of Iran are compounded by unfavourable economic conditions, an inflation rate of more than 30 percent, wage increases that aren’t keeping up with rising costs, including that of housing and basic goods, and political groups exploiting resentment over the large Afghan population to their own political ends.
Right now, employers are taking advantage of the large presence of Afghan migrants, many who arrived after the Taliban retook Kabul in 2021. Often the only jobs they can find are for manual labour. Iranian bosses exploit their desperation by paying low wages, without any kind of rights, legal protection, insurance, or job security.
If that wasn’t enough, migrants from Afghanistan are being squeezed by the high cost of consular services at the embassy and consulates of Afghanistan, as well as the costs of required administrative fees in Iran. Compounding that pain is the free fall of the Iranian currency against the U.S. dollar, which is the currency demanded as payment for most of those fees.
Consular fees at the Afghan Embassy in Tehran
Both the Taliban and the previous government of Afghanistan demand that consular services be paid in U.S. dollars. Such services range from issuing and renewing passports and marriage certificates to confirmations of inheritance restrictions and identifications.
In addition to the travel costs to Tehran or the cities where Afghanistan has consular offices, the current cost for consular services are (in US dollars):
- Issuing a passport: $150
- Passport renewal: $101
- Re-issuing a passport: $240
- Issuing a power of attorney: $120
- Dismissal of a lawyer: $125
- Declaration of affidavit and inheritance: $125
- Marriage certificate or divorce certificate: $50
Most of those prices were imposed when Iranian currency was much stronger. Two years ago, it cost around 5,000-10000 Iranian tomans to buy one American dollar. Now, it costs 70,000 tomans to buy one dollar. The collapse in the Iranian currency’s foreign exchange rate makes it almost impossible for migrants from Afghanistan to afford the cost of necessary government documents. In Iran, an Afghan labourer can earn an average of seven million tomans a month, which is the equivalent of around US$120, depending on the fluctuating exchange rate. Since there are an estimated six people in most immigrant families from Afghanistan, and maybe one or two of those members can find work, it’s not hard to see how families can spend more than half their income on consular expenses.
While migrants hoped that the Taliban might reduce the price of consular fees, given their meager wages and the ongoing collapse of the Iranian currency, they were angered a few months ago when the Taliban suddenly increased the cost of many fees by as much as five times the previous price. That money grab by a regime wanting to exploit every possible source of income prompted a wave of complaints and protests by the Afghan community, both in Iran and online. The Taliban eventually rolled back the fee increases, though some stayed slightly higher than their previous levels.
While the Taliban impose high fees on the Afghan immigrant community in Iran, the members of that diverse community remain far away from the policies and plans of the Afghan government. In particular, the second and third generations of immigrants are experiencing an identity crisis – they have not been integrated into the society of Iran, nor have they maintained necessary links to the cultural and value chains of their source societies in Afghanistan.
Most of the second and third generations of immigrants are both illiterate and poorly educated. Though there are dozens of problems affecting the lives of immigrants that the Afghan government should work to solve or reduce through negotiating with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, successive governments of Afghanistan have not undertaken any concrete or fruitful action. Instead, they seem to view the huge numbers of migrants as a valuable source of foreign income.
Payments to the government of Iran
In addition to paying necessary consular fees, migrants from Afghanistan have to find funds for a long list of fees, services, registrations, and confirmations required by the government of Iran.
For example, the cost of the “issuance and renewal of work card” must be paid by all migrants from Afghanistan, even for those who have just arrived with a tourist visa and are renewing that visa. So even people who are not working are required to get a work card for the price of one million tomans.
Some other government fees and services that require payment:
- Getting a FIDA (identity) code
- SIM card approval
- Tourist and family visa extension
- Amayesh card (foreign nationals temporary residence card) extension
- Academic support sheet
- Inter-province transfer permit
- Exit and return permit
- Census fee
- Municipality fee
- School registration
- Commuting between cities
- Confirmation of births, deaths, marriage or divorce
- Release of confiscated items
And in those cases, protests such as those that got the consular fee increases removed are not an option. That same migrant family from Afghanistan can easily pay up to 30 million tomans for all those regulatory fees in Iran.
The myriad costs – including soaring rents as well as government and consular fees – are driving Afghan migrants to reach the end of their rope. And, with few international or local organizations able to help them, many migrants are being crushed under the burden of these expenses. Making the situation worse, the ruling elite in Afghanistan has no plan to improve the lives of such migrants, either in Iran or back in Afghanistan. Instead, diplomats use their posts in Iran to better their own lives, including continuing their own studies at Iranian universities.
*Elham Hinayish is the pen name of an Afghan refugee woman in Iran.
