Claim of 100,000 Afghan Nationals Attending Ibrahim Raisi's Funeral in Mashhad

The head of the Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Office in Khorasan Razavi province has claimed that "over 100,000" Afghan citizens attended the "funeral and burial" of Ibrahim Raisi in Mashhad. Hossein Sharafati Rad announced this figure on Friday, June 4, during an event attended by Afghan nationals at the "Hosseiniyeh of Heratis" in Mashhad, but did not specify how this number was derived. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, he considered the establishment of a "National Immigration Organization" as one of the "important actions and legacies" of Ibrahim Raisi, while the approval for the formation of this organization was made during Hassan Rouhani's government in 2018, and the bill for its establishment was sent to the Islamic Consultative Assembly in 2020. The Iranian Minister of Interior stated that 1.3 million foreign nationals were "deported" in the past year. Two weeks before the incident that led to the death of Ibrahim Raisi and his companions, Ahmad Vahidi announced on April 16 that "1.3 million foreign nationals have been expelled from the country in the past year." He stated, "To prevent the entry of unauthorized nationals into Iran, it is necessary to amend the related laws in the parliament." In the rhetoric of Islamic Republic officials, "nationals" usually refers to Afghan refugees, and these officials have intensified the campaign to expel those who do not have residence permits in Iran over the past year, a situation that has sparked human rights criticisms. At the end of April, local Afghan officials announced that "over 20,000 Afghan children" were expelled from Iran last year. Mohammad Haroon Wahidi, the head of the Migrants Affairs in Nimroz province, told "Tolo News" that "approximately 30 to 40 unaccompanied children are returned from Iran to Nimroz daily." Local Afghan officials also stated that these children were returned to their country alone. IRNA reported, citing the Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Office of Khorasan Razavi, that nearly 400,000 foreign nationals with identification and residence documents are legally residing in Mashhad, and about 300,000 "unauthorized" foreign nationals have also been identified, of which 100,000 have been returned to their country. According to the updated report from the UN Refugee Agency for 2024, Iran hosts 3.4 million foreign refugees, the majority of whom are Afghan refugees.