Iran hopes to boost security with Afghan border wall

A concrete wall spanning 74 kilometers (45 miles) is to be built along a section of Iran's border with Afghanistan and help close a known illegal crossing point, Iranian officials say.

The wall is set to be 4 meters (13 feet) high and expanded with additional barbed wire fencing.

According to Iranian authorities, Khorasan-Razavi province is one of the most important destinations for illegal immigrants, along with the North Khorasan and South Khorasan provinces in northeastern Iran.

The border between Iran and Afghanistan is about 920 kilometers long. For over 40 years, thousands have braved tough desert and mountain terrain to enter Iran and leave behind civil war and poverty. Now, they are once again fleeing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Iranian authorities see their northeastern Razavi-Khorasan province and North and South Khorasan as the top destinations for irregular migrants from Afghanistan. The region is also thought to be an entry point for terrorists.

Now, Iran's National Security Council has allocated a budget of around €3 billion ($3.2 billion) for the army to secure part of this border with Afghanistan over the next three years. According to state news agency IRNA, the contract includes the construction of a concrete wall and a border fence in Razavi-Khorasan.

Many migrants reaching Iran have plans to continue their journey and reach EuropeImage: Ebrahim NorooziAP/picture alliance

Iran fears further 'IS' attacks

The security situation on the border with Afghanistan quickly deteriorated after the Taliban returned power in August 2021, with offshoots of the so-called Islamic State (IS) carrying out several cross-border attacks in Iran over the past three years.

In January 2024, the "Islamic State – Khorasan" (ISIS-K), claimed responsibility for two blasts in the city of Kerman that killed 89 people. In 2022, IS claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shiite shrine in Shiraz that killed more than a dozen people. The terror group considers the Shiite majority in Iran to be apostates from Islam.

The Iranian army's ground troops have increased their presence on the border with Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power. Despite the tightened security, however, illegal migrants are finding ways to cross the remote border.

Millions of Afghan refugees

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that around 4.5 million Afghans are currently living in Iran. At least a million Afghans fled to Iran after the Taliban came to power in the summer of 2021. However, only around 50,000 of these people are registered as refugees.

Many Afghans refuse to register for fear of deportation. They are able to blend into parts of Iranian society comparatively easily thanks to similarities in culture and language, but are also vulnerable to being exploited as cheap illegal labor.

A large percentage of Afghan refugees has no plans of ending their journey in Iran and instead see it as the first stop on the escape route to Europe. Those who can afford to do pay their way to the West can simply turn to highly organized people smuggling gangs from Afghanistan, Iran or Turkey.

Ankara is also aware of this phenomenon. To stop irregular migration, Turkey has built a 3-meter-high, 170-kilometer-long concrete wall along its 560-kilometer border with Iran.

Iran's second try at an Afghan border wall

Iran has been planning to reinforce its border with Afghanistan with walls for more than thirty years.

The first steps towards this were taken in 1992. At that time, a 30-kilometer-long wall was built along the border in Sistan and Baluchestan province.

In addition to curbing illegal immigration, the authorities hoped to halt the smuggling of gasoline from Iran into Afghanistan and of drugs making their way into Iran.

Around a million Afghans have fled to Iran since the Taliban takeoverImage: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

However, the wall was not built exactly along the border line. Instead, it was erected within Iranian territory, leaving almost 2,000 hectares of farmland on the other side. Iranian farmers are allowed to pass through the wall to get to their fields.

With the Taliban'sreclaiming power in Kabul in 2021, this has become a safety hazard. The Taliban regime sees the wall as the actual border. Farmers who work in their fields on the other side of the wall are repeatedly attacked and beaten by the Taliban, and their machines are confiscated.

"This wall is neither a border wall nor a security wall," local lawmaker Mohammad Sargazi told Iranian media.

"It only makes life difficult for Iranian farmers," he added.

Other lawmakers from the region are even calling for the wall to be torn down.

This article has been translated from German

Edited by: Darko Janjevic