During the recent 12-day war with Israel, Iranian security agencies announced, without providing any concrete evidence, at least five separate incidents involving the arrest of Afghan migrants—both individually and in groups—accused of being "Mossad agents." These arrests occurred primarily in Tehran and Mashhad.
In three of these cases, Iranian authorities released videos of forced confessions recorded at police facilities. In two other cases, however—one involving 18 Afghan migrants allegedly preparing drones for operations near Mashhad, and another involving a student in Rey allegedly assembling micro-drones—no further details or evidence were shared publicly.
On June 18, Tasnim News Agency reported the arrest of an Afghan national, a university student in Rey, accused of collaborating with Mossad. The agency claimed the student had videos related to drone construction on his phone. Neither his photo nor identity has been released, and Iranian officials have offered no further information.
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| An Afghan migrant in Iran - AFP |
In another case reported on June 23, Iranian media said that two Afghan men and one Iranian national were arrested in Pakdasht for alleged ties to Mossad. In a video of their supposed confessions recorded by police, the two Afghan men identified themselves as residents of Badakhshan and claimed they intended to bomb a power plant and a military base. One said he had been living in Iran for eight years, the other for one year and two months. Both were labor migrants and said they had not discussed any payment with the individual who coordinated their plans. Although Iranian media released this video, no other evidence supporting the accusations has been made public. The footage shows items like car batteries, a TV remote, and cables, which a reporter claimed were meant to bomb the Parchin military facility and local power plant.
Another video aired by Iranian state TV on June 21 under the title “Arrest of Two Mossad Agents” shows two Afghan men with concealed faces, claiming they had come to Iran as workers. They said they sent GPS coordinates of sensitive sites, including the headquarters of Iran’s state broadcasting agency, to a friend in Germany in exchange for $2,000. One of them said he was about to send more locations before being arrested.
Reports citing Saeed Montazer-al-Mahdi, spokesperson for Tehran police, allege that the two individuals also shared the location of an Iranian official’s residence in Saadatabad with their German contact.
On June 23, another video was released of a man detained in Tehran’s metro. Some Iranian outlets referred to him as an “undocumented Afghan national and Mossad agent.” He claimed in the video that he was merely in a gathering where someone mentioned drones. No proof has been presented linking him to any attacks.
During the 12-day conflict, at least five Afghan citizens, including a pregnant woman, were killed in Tehran. There is no available data on the number of Afghan nationals injured. Following the ceasefire on Wednesday, Iranian authorities began an aggressive deportation campaign targeting Afghan migrants. Simultaneously, the security establishment’s unsubstantiated claims that some Afghan migrants were working with Israeli intelligence intensified social hostility toward the Afghan community.
Ebrahim (pseudonym), a former Afghan soldier living in Tehran, told Independent Persian that he has been hiding in a house for a week, fearing arrest and deportation. He added that several former military personnel who fled to Iran after the Taliban takeover have recently been detained and expelled.
Reports have emerged of former Afghan soldiers who were deported from Iran being detained, tortured, or killed by the Taliban. One such case is that of Sayed Ghafoor Balkhi, a former employee of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), who disappeared in Kabul shortly after being deported. On Friday, June 27, his family recovered his body from the outskirts of Kabul.
The Iranian regime’s portrayal of Afghan migrants as Mossad spies has sparked criticism among Afghan and Iranian activists. Some Afghan migrants have shared accounts of being harassed at checkpoints, interrogated as suspected spies, and even having their passports torn up by Iranian security forces.
Salem Rezaei, an Afghan student in Iran, posted on Facebook on June 27 that he had been detained and humiliated by police in Qom on suspicion of spying for Mossad. He wrote: “The police checked my documents and computer. They said a report claimed I had been collecting information from people all day. I said I hadn’t. They took us to the station, stripped us naked, and after insulting us, they issued a letter saying they had caught Mossad spies.” He added that officers tried to force him and a friend to confess but eventually released them after physical abuse and forcing them to clean the station.
Critics have pointed out the implausibility of these accusations, noting that Israel targeted high-level Iranian intelligence officials in their own bedrooms and bombed highly secure facilities—operations far beyond the scope of migrant laborers collecting GPS data on public buildings.
Nevertheless, the deportation of Afghan migrants—which began even before the war—has escalated rapidly in its aftermath. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 233,000 Afghan migrants were deported from Iran in June alone. IOM spokesperson Avand Aziz Agha told AFP that over 691,000 Afghans have been forced to leave Iran since the beginning of 2024.
Images from the Islam Qala border crossing show thousands of Afghan families returning with little more than the clothes on their backs. Many told reporters they were not even allowed time to gather household belongings before being expelled.
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