Iran executed at least 80 Afghans in 2024, a threefold increase compared to the previous year, according to a joint statement released by 84 human rights organizations urging international action to halt the executions.
Only six of the executions were officially announced, with the remainder carried out without media coverage, the statement said.
In the first five months of 2025 alone, at least 32 Afghan citizens have been executed in Iran, the organizations reported.
The signatories said that Iran acts with impunity when dealing with defendants from marginalized populations. Afghan defendants are often denied consular access due to Afghanistan’s ongoing political crisis.
Many of the death sentences, the groups warned, are based on confessions obtained under torture. The groups also cited unfair judicial proceedings in capital cases.
The organizations cautioned that more Afghan citizens are at risk of execution if the international community remains silent.
Iran Human Rights, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the Center for Human Rights Defenders are among the signatories.
The statement also attributed the rise in executions to growing anti-migrant sentiment in Iran, which has made Afghan nationals more vulnerable.
The groups called on human rights bodies, political activists, and the public to speak out against the executions.
Iran is home to one of the world’s largest Afghan migrant populations, many of whom fled after the Taliban's return to power in 2021.
The spike in executions comes amid worsening economic conditions in Iran and an increase in anti-migrant rhetoric from officials, who have increasingly blamed Afghan migrants for the country’s social and economic challenges.
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