Sectarianism brought into play: Reasons why Afghan migrants in Iran become involved in Syria’s war

Ali Atef Hassan

Rampant unrest and wars in some Middle Eastern countries have forced large numbers of people to seek refuge in neighboring states. Afghanistan has been home to the largest number of migrants because of this unrest.

Most of those who left Afghanistan headed to Iran. Nonetheless, it must be noted that Iran has been a preferred destination for Shiite Afghans.

The arrival of these Shiite migrants in Iran was timely in the light of keenness by Iranian authorities not to involve Iranian nationals in battles outside national borders, especially after the war with Iraq (1980 – 1988).

A large number of Afghans fought Iraq side by side with the Iranian army. Around 2,000 Afghan fighters were killed in the war (1). Iran now uses Afghan migrants again, but this time in the war in Syria.

Shiite Afghan migrants in Iran

Afghan migrants

Apart from economic problems, rampant unrest in Afghanistan has caused a large number of Afghan nationals to leave their country to Iran. Around 5.5 million Afghans have so far left their country, according to Afghan government figures (2). Around 2.2 million of these migrants have ended up in Iran.

The Iranian government (3) says, meanwhile, that 1.6 million Afghans are present in Iran. This makes up almost 95% of the total number of migrants on Iranian soil, the Iranian government says.

According to Kabul, 450,000 of these migrants have visas valid for a short period of time only. About 887,306 of these migrants also do not have official residence permits in Iran, Afghanistan says.

This latter group of Afghan nationals is the main point of this study. These Afghan nationals without residence permits in Iran are the strategic human reserve of the Iranian authorities. Iran forces these Afghan nationals to fight in Syria – and in other countries for that matter – or it will deport them to Afghanistan.

Most of the Afghan nationals live in Iranian capital Tehran, around half a million. Below is the distribution of Afghan migrants in Iran:

Tehran: 515,000
Razavi Khorasan: 219,000
Kerman: 125,000
Isfahan: 183,000

Suffering in Iran

Most Afghan migrants arrived in Iran during the First Gulf War. Nonetheless, a major chunk of these migrants fled to Iran as a result of the latest wars in their country. Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ordered Iranian authorities to open Iranian borders to allow Afghan migrants fleeing the war in their country to cross into Iran. Khomeini even ordered Basij, an elitist unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to help those migrants (4).

Some of the migrants became part of Iran’s economic life. They played a big role during the First Gulf War, being skilled in a number of professions, at a time the Iranians were busy fighting the Iraqis.

The Afghans worked in agriculture and in the construction sector. This was cheap labor. They participated in several developments projects in Iran after the war came to an end in 1988.

Most Afghan migrants settled first in Khorasan and the northeastern city of Mashhad. Later on, the Afghans started arriving in Tehran, Shiraz and Qom.

The First Gulf War slowed down the migration of the Afghans into Iran. However, the migration into Iran started to pick up yet again with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the eruption of several wars in the country. The migration of the Afghans proved to be instrumental in rescuing the Iranian labor market (5), according to Iranian sources.

Nonetheless, Afghan migrants in Iran writhe under tough social conditions. They face a number of challenges, including the lack of jobs. Unemployment is high among the Afghan migrants. In this, they are like everybody else in Iran.

Iranian authorities restricted, meanwhile, the work of the Afghans to some sectors of the economy, including the construction sector, the agriculture sector and road projects.

Afghan migrants are never given official documentation in Iran to protect their rights. Migrants, who get documents proving their refugee status, are never hired by Iranian employers.

The migrants cannot enroll their children in Iranian schools. They cannot open bank accounts either.

Migrant children who are born in Iran are never viewed as Iranian citizens. If they are admitted into Iranian universities, the children of the migrants cannot apply for jobs that suit their university degrees.

The children of Iranian migrants cannot also receive free education like all Iranian children do. Their parents have to pay for their education. Most of the children of the migrants also have to attend school in the evenings.

According to official Iranian reports, around 32,000 children are not documented. These are the children of mixed Afghan-Iranian marriages. There are around 30,000 mixed marriages. Children from these marriages cannot be documented. They cannot get the Iranian citizenship either. They cannot be part of the official subsidy system in Iran (6).

In 2012, the Iranian government issued a decree that bars foreigners, including the Afghan migrants, from studying physics; nuclear engineering; intelligence sciences, and military sciences.

Iranian authorities force the Afghan migrants to pay an amount of money every year in return for staying in Iran. The Afghans also have to pay extra money for using the Iranian legal system.

Iranian citizens view Afghan migrants in a racist manner. An Afghan journalist explained this issue by writing that hatred of the Afghans had turned into a national sport in Iran.

“Most Iranians view the Afghans as criminals who deserve to be given tough work. On most occasions, it is common for Iranians to humiliate Afghans,” the Afghan journalist wrote.

The same journalist accused Iranian authorities of using the Afghans during the war with Iraq and then neglecting them after the war.

Iranian authorities, he wrote, prevent Afghans from studying at Iranian schools.

He described the conditions of Afghan migrants as the “worst”, compared to the conditions of Afghan migrants in other countries. He said Afghans are barred from living in some Iranian cities, including Sistan; Baluchistan; Zanjan, and Kermanshah.

According to an Iranian general, there are around 2 million Shiite Afghans in Iran (7).

Consequences of Afghans’ suffering in Iran

The suffering the Afghans sustained inside Iran made it easy for some of them to be conscripted within Iranian military missions in other countries.

The ongoing war in Syria is one of these missions. Some Afghans were easily swayed by offers made by the Iranian authorities for them to fight in Syria. In convincing the Afghans of being part of this war, Iranian authorities tell them that they would go to Syria to defend sacred Shiite shrines in the country.

Foreign fighters

Iran has started recruiting foreigners in its military service, especially in operations outside national borders, since the end of the war with Iraq. It had to do this after sustaining a huge toll during this war. The real Iranian financial and human toll in the war is still unknown, even as Iran released some figures.

Shiites were at the center of this recruitment process, regardless of where they come from.

Fatemiyoun Division

Iran has jumped into the Syrian arena in order to defend its strategic interests. Iran started its Syria intervention by sending national troops. Nonetheless, a huge human toll made it necessary for Tehran to enlist the services of foreigners to fight on its behalf.

In doing this, Iran depended on Shiites who could easily be swayed by Iranian offers or even threats. For Afghans living in Iran, going to Syria was a good escape from the tough circumstances they experienced in Iran. This was why entities, such as Fatemiyoun Division, came into being.

Afghan migrants forced to fight in Syria

Iran started sending Afghan fighters into Syria as of 2012. This drive picked up after the Syrian army was defeated in several battles at the hands of the armed opposition, most of which included in international terror lists.

There was an urgent need for a large number of fighters to make up for the human losses the Syrian army sustained in a number of areas. Iran also wanted to speed up the arrival of these fighters in Syria in order to protect its strategic interests in the Arab country.

In 2012, Iranian army generals decided to form a military force of Afghans to fight in Syria. Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Mohammad Ali Jafari announced the formation of a force of 50,000 fighters to fight side by side with the Syrian army. Nevertheless, the Iranians did not say then that the new force would be made of Afghans.

The new force was made to be under the command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Afghan migrants were given training at Iranian military camps and then sent to Syria (8).

There is uncertainty on the number of fighters within Fatemiyoun Division. Some sources, however, estimate the number of fighters within it to be between 8,000 and 14,000 (9).

According to some Shiite Afghans, the Iranian regime convinced the Afghans to be part of the war in Syria through both coercion and promises. The Iranians, they said, made the Afghans choose between travelling to Syria, going back to their country, or even facing imprisonment in Iran. The Iranian regime, the Shiite Afghans said, promised the Afghans a better life in Syria.

Those agreed to join the battles in Syria receive salaries between $500 and $800.

The Iranian regime tells those who join the fight in Syria that they are in the Arab state to defend the shrine of Sayyeda Zeinab in Syrian capital Damascus.

Some of the Afghans, now fighting in Syria, do not buy into this idea, but they were forced to go to Syria to either get rid of their tough living conditions in Iran or for fear of imprisonment or repatriation.

Revolutionary Guard Corps offices have opened in a number of Iranian provinces to receive Afghans who want to go to Syria. Some of the Afghans who did not agree to go to Syria had to seek asylum in Europe, especially after hundreds of thousands of Syrians sought refuge in European countries. Afghan migrants constitute the second largest group of migrants in Europe after the Syrians, not only because Iran forces them to fight in Syria, but also because of internal conditions in Afghanistan itself.

Some of the Afghans who fight in Syria say they are used as “human shields” (10) for Iranian troops in the war. The Iranians treat the Afghans badly in Syria as well. The Iranian army command does not offer Afghan fighters enough food. The same fighters are also denied transport in most cases, which is why they have to travel long distances on foot.

In almost all cases, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps does not honor its promise of giving the Afghans who fight in Syria residence permits in Iran. This was why some of these Afghans had to escape the war.

Consequences

Sending Afghan migrants in Iran to battlefields in a number of countries has come at the center of debate recently. Some rights advocates call for filing a case at international courts against the Iranian regime in this regard.

Afghan authorities said they oppose the sending of Afghan nationals to the war in Syria. Some members of the Afghan parliament even said they would lodge a complaint at the United Nations against Iran.

Acting spokesperson for the Afghan President, Shah Hussain Murtazawi, said his country rejected all forms of proxy wars in other countries. His announcement came hard on the heels of news that more than 2,000 Afghan fighters were killed and around 8,000 others injured in the war in Syria (11).

It is important to note that the way this case will be settled will depend in the days to come on understandings between Kabul and Tehran. The same case will also continue to be hostage to Iranian influence in Afghanistan.

References