Every year countless people risk their lives to clandestinely cross the eastern and western borders of Iran in the hopes of forging a better life for themselves. Not only are their rights not protected as “illegal immigrants” in the Islamic Republic, but some employees of the Iranian state are actively profiting from this miserable situation.
The beneficiaries of human trafficking to Iran include border guards, law enforcement officers, municipal officials and government employees. They are both complicit with smugglers and well-positioned to extort money from these vulnerable migrants and their employers after they arrive in Iran. With their implicit blessing, the cycle of impoverishment, dehumanization and criminality continues apace.
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According to Article 1 of Iran’s Law on Combating Human Trafficking, human trafficking is defined as any act of shuttling human beings from one place to another and hiding them that has been carried out with the intention of abetting "prostitution, the removal of internal organs, slavery and/or marriage." It only counts as a crime when one of these motives lies behind it.
Article 4 of the same law also stipulates that employees of the government or government-linked institutions will be sentenced to "temporary or permanent dismissal" alongside the prescribed punishments if they commit such a crime. But what happens to these people in practice is very different.
In fact, a large number of employees of various government departments, from administrative and municipal staff members to border guards and law enforcement officers, are directly or indirectly involved in abetting human trafficking in Iran. Most of personally gain either by turning a blind eye, or by extorting illegal immigrants and their new employers after they settle in Iran.
On the eastern borders, many Afghan migrants have reported seeing border guards and police officers taking bribes to allow them safe passage: first into the country and then on to their final destination. Those intending to leave for Europe via the western border observe the same on the other side, while those who do stay in Iran are also forced to deal covertly with law enforcement officers and municipal officials in order to work.
Opportunities for Profit at Every Stage of the Journey
In recent months various cities in Afghanistan have experienced escalating levels of violence and insecurity as the Taliban has staged various attacks during negotiations with the government, backed by the Islamic Republic. Many journalists and civil and political activists have been forced to leave and this fresh wave continues today.
Those who intend to get to Europe via Turkey have to pass through Iran on a decades-old illegal route. The migrants are first taken by people-smugglers to Pakistan, then across into Iran, passing through several Iranian cities to get to the western border. Many others stay behind in Iran, hoping to make enough money to live comfortably and support their families from there.
An Afghan journalist who traveled to Iran to work as a laborer about 10 years ago tells IranWire that his smugglers told him that he would travel “more easily” – without having to deal with long walks and treacherous paths – if he paid an additional 100,000 above the agreed fee.
"I don’t know how much of this they paid the Iranian border guards,” he says, “but when we entered Iran, wherever the border guards stopped the bus, the driver would negotiate with them and give them some money, and they would let us pass without searching the vehicle. The same thing happened as we moved between cities. Whenever we arrived at the checkpoint, it seemed the officers knew the driver. They chatted with him and took their money, and we continued on our way."
According to this reporter, the buses that illegally transported Afghan passengers from the border town of Nimrouz to Iran – operating in full coordination with the guards – were also the very same buses seen taking deported Afghan migrants back to their own country.
At the time of his crossing, he added, it also appeared to be commonplace for bus drivers to hand out fake documentation to passengers. This was also seemingly happening in coordination with local police: “At once point a police officer stopped the bus and he told us, ‘If anyone asks if you have a passport, say yes; they won’t ask for more.’”
On arrival in Iran, the reporter took on a job as a construction worker for several months. Because of his lack of documents, his employer practically became a slave-master. “There were eight of us, and we walked the streets trembling in fear. We were worried about municipal officers’ control over the building sites. But every time they came by, they talked to the owner, and he paid them a sum of money for each worker. At the time, they were receiving between one million and 1.5 million tomans for each worker."
Creating a Market Through Arrests and Deportation
Other Afghan migrants to Iran have similar stories to tell. One of them, a 42-year-old who goes by the name Rostam, has been smuggled into Iran three times now and has spent 12 years of his life inside the country. Every time he entered Iran via the Pakistani border, he says, police, border guards and soldiers at the checkpoints took money from smugglers. One of his smugglers, he says, "was so well known that he was greeted with military salute."
Another Afghan citizen, Hossein, travelled to Iran in 2017 and returned home two years later. He worked in a factory during his time in the country. "Every time Ministry of Labor or municipal officials came to check on it,” he says, “our employer paid them 1.5 million tomans to allow the undocumented Afghans to keep working."
Hossein says he was also repeatedly forced to pay police officers on the street himself. On one occasion, he says, he handed over three million tomans to avoid being taken to an immigration detention center. But on another occasion he was unlucky: the police officers immediately took him to Sang-e Sefid camp, from which he was later sent to Asgarabad: the last stop before deportation.
There, however, he says: “I told the camp police officer that I worked as a laborer to support my parents. And said that if they let me get back to work, I’d give them some pocket money. The officer said he would need the permission of his superior, so he took me to his boss. I suggested the same thing to him, and this official took the money and said they would release me at the border. That was exactly what happened, and I went back to work."
A number of other Afghan refugees spoke to IranWire and shared similar accounts of paying officials either for their initial entry into Iran or to stay in the country later on. Many were also under the impression that their traffickers were in direct contact with law enforcement agents. A people-smuggler who spoke to IranWire confirms they were right to think so.
Dancing the Dance
Saeed introduces himself as a "human mover". Like many people-smugglers, he insists that he and his charges, who are trying to leave Iran and get into Turkey on the western border, always make the crossing easily and safely. IranWire located this individual through a group of Afghan and Iranian asylum seekers, and he spoke to our reporter on the condition of anonymity.
In general, he explained, he pays Iranian border guards in order to buy time – sometimes hours, sometimes a matter of minutes – in which he can get the travellers through checkpoints without being obstructed. “I’ve personally met some of these border guards,” he says, “and if a passenger pays a decent amount, we’ll take him through this way. I coordinate the crossing time with the border guard, whose shift I know; I pay him the agreed amount, and at a certain time, he closes his eyes. Now, for example, he leaves his post for morning prayers, and we have a quarter of an hour to get the passenger through."
Some of these border guards, he explains, also have acquaintances or relatives in the area. It can be easier to coordinate these movements with them. Normally, a bribe of between 10 and 20 million tomans [$400 to $800] is considered acceptable for the passage of a number of illegal travellers out of Iran, and for their guaranteed delivery to the city of Van in Turkey. The more the traveller pays, the easier this process is to organize.
The smuggling of a person or group of people out of Iran is a complex choreography involving a range of actors. Travelers are handed from one group of smugglers to the next, who in turn rely on the help of local guides and the complicity of several sets of border guards to reach their destination. If the travellers are lucky, the smugglers and guides will be equipped to deal with government forces, which will make their journey safer. But many have been unlucky in their choice of conduit and have been arrested, beaten and even killed by law enforcement officers.
Although human trafficking is illegal in the Islamic Republic, there have been no efforts made in practice to combat the endemic corruption in the system that allows it to continue. This is in all likelihood borne out of recognition that in the present circumstances illegal migration is not only inevitable, but a source of additional income.
Meanwhile, the lives, property, human dignity and security of migrants and asylum seekers continue to be undermined. In seeking to forge a new life for themselves, they become someone else’s property and lucrative earners themselves.
Related coverage:
Afghan Migrant Recalls Three Months of Slave Labor in Iran
Iranian People-Smugglers Taking Afghans Hostage: A Refugee's Story
A Teenager’s Story of Being Trafficked into Iran
Afghan Migrants are Systematically Brutalized by Iran's Border Police
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