Iran says refugees can return home if they have not committed 'crimes'
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that refugees can return to the country without facing legal consequences, as long as they have not committed offenses.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that refugees can return to the country without facing legal consequences, as long as they have not committed offenses.
“Conditions for the entry of Iranian refugees have been prepared … provided they have not committed other criminal acts,” Hossein Nooshabadi, the ministry’s director general for parliamentary and legal affairs, told the semi-official ILNA news agency.
"Seeking asylum is not considered a crime," Nooshabadi added.
His remarks came after a meeting attended by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and lawmakers, where officials discussed expanding engagement with Iranians abroad, including the possibility of postal or electronic voting in future presidential elections.
Nooshabadi added that Iran would provide consular services to citizens abroad “regardless of their political views.”
While Iran says it welcomes the return of refugees, the country’s laws criminalize a wide range of behavior — including political dissent, activism, homosexuality, and refusal to comply with compulsory hijab rules — the same issues that have led many Iranians to seek asylum abroad.
Pop singer Amir Tataloo, who lived in exile in Turkey for about four years before returning to Iran in 2023, was arrested upon his return and sentenced to death on blasphemy charges.
Iranian media reports in August said the judiciary is reviewing the case for a possible pardon after accepting his repentance. Though he remains imprisoned in Iran.
In June, former Iranian diplomats and embassy staff members told Iran International that the Islamic Republic uses its overseas missions to covertly surveil dissidents and fund influence operations via state-backed cultural initiatives.
A 2014 report by UK-based IranWire said Iranian embassies in Europe have refused consular services to critics and opponents of the Islamic Republic living abroad.
Human rights groups have documented widespread repression inside Iran, including arbitrary arrests, forced confessions, and prosecutions of peaceful critics.
In reports this year, they have documented widespread repression inside Iran, including arbitrary arrests, forced confessions and prosecutions of peaceful critics.
“To be honest, we were surprised. But if our Iranian partners accepted this formulation - which, frankly, was a legal trap - we had no grounds to object,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
Last month, UN sanctions were reimposed on Iran after France, Germany, and the United Kingdom triggered the so-called snapback mechanism, accusing Tehran of spurning diplomacy and nuclear inspections.
The snapback mechanism was part of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It allows any participant, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran in the event of alleged violations, without the possibility of a veto.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and calls the new sanctions aggressive and illegal.
Hardliners in Iran have long criticized Zarif for accepting the JCPOA’s snapback mechanism, viewing it as a concession that ultimately enabled the reimposition of sanctions.
“That provision was, in fact, agreed upon during the final stage of the direct negotiations" between Iran's then top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif and his US counterpart John Kerry, Lavrov added.
“The other participants were essentially observers at that point, watching the US and Iran reach an agreement."
“What happened instead is that Iran did not breach the deal, yet the United States withdrew from it, and the Europeans failed to meet their commitments,” Lavrov said.
Fate of the deal
The United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 during first President Donald Trump’s administration. In response, Iran gradually reduced its compliance with the JCPOA and in 2019 began enriching uranium at higher levels.
Zarif expressed frustration with Russia’s role in a leaked 2022 interview, saying, “When the JCPOA was signed, Russia made every possible effort in the final week to prevent the agreement from being concluded.”
Israel launched a surprise military offensive in June, striking Iran’s military and nuclear facilities and targeting top officials. Iran retaliated with waves of drone and ballistic missile attacks.
The United States entered the conflict on June 22 with strikes on key nuclear sites in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, and later brokered a ceasefire between Iran and Israel after 12 days of fighting on June 24.
Following the attacks, Iran halted cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Erfan Qaneifard, a critic of Tehran's clerical establishment, has been in a US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) detention center in Texas for over six months.
His strident rebukes of the Islamic Republic in books and editorials for Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper may lead to a death sentence if US law enforcement carries through on plans to deport him, sponsors of a petition seeking his freedom told Iran International.
For them, Qaneifard’s case is a test of America’s moral commitment to protect those who speak out against tyranny.
Negar Karamati said Qaneifard told her in a phone call this week he is hopeful but exhausted.
“It’s not a pleasant place to be, especially when you haven’t done anything wrong,” she told Iran International. “He’s been there for over 200 days now — it’s an immigration issue, nothing more.”
Qaneifard has been held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, since March 28, when he was detained after reporting to an ICE office in Dallas to update his address, according to his attorney, Masoud Peyma.
The center, which houses more than 700 detainees, has faced complaints of overcrowding and harsh conditions according to US media.
Peyma said Qaneifard, who was preparing to start a teaching position at a Dallas college, was instead detained and transferred to a facility for undocumented migrants.
"The risk is real. If he is sent back, his life will be in danger,” Peyma told Iran International. “There is no reason for him to remain in detention after six months.”
Karamati described Qaneifard as a demanding but deeply caring mentor who inspired her and other young Iranians to engage critically with politics and the media.
“He teaches in a way that you could sit for hours and learn,” she said. “Even in conversation, it feels like a lecture — he’s that informative and passionate.”
She said Qaneifard’s detention has devastated his friends and family. "Every voice counts in stopping this serious injustice,” she added.
Petition gains momentum
From California, grassroots activist Mojgan Mehdizadeh launched an online petition titled Free Erfan Qaneifard — Stop His Deportation to Danger that has gathered nearly 3,000 signatures, including Keramati's.
“I’ve followed his books and interviews for years,” Mehdizadeh said. “He’s an expert on Iran’s modern history and a critic of the regime. Sending him back would be a death sentence.”
The petition calls on the US President, Department of Homeland Security and State Department to release Qaneifard and halt any removal order.
It cites US and UN reports documenting torture, arbitrary detention and executions of political dissidents in Iran, urging Washington to uphold its obligations under the Convention Against Torture and the principle of non-refoulement.
'A test of America’s promise'
Qaneifard’s attorney, Masoud Peyma, told Iran International that ICE has contacted Iran’s Interests Section in Washington seeking travel documents, but Tehran has not responded.
He has filed motions in federal and immigration courts to secure his client’s release and reopen his asylum claim with new evidence of his political work.
Qaneifard’s earlier asylum request, filed in 2013, was rejected in 2018 for lack of evidence.
He reentered the United States in 2017 through the Mexico border, applied for asylum, and was previously detained at ICE facility in El Paso until 2020, during which time the US attempted to deport him through Azerbaijan, but he refused to board a Tehran-bound flight.
The case comes as the United States faces scrutiny for a series of deportations to Iran. A US-chartered flight recently carried dozens of Iranians to Tehran after stopping in Puerto Rico and Qatar, following months of talks between Washington and Tehran.
Immigration attorney Ali Herischi told Iran International that flight included political dissidents and Christian converts, some of whom were shackled and separated from their families before being handed over to Iranian authorities.
For Qaneifard’s supporters, that makes his situation even more urgent. “This man hasn’t done anything criminal,” one wrote in the petition. “If he is sent back to Iran, they will kill or torture him for speaking the truth.”
Between 2017 and 2024, Qaneifard wrote extensively about Iran’s security apparatus and regional militias, contributing commentary to Persian- and English-language outlets.
In one of his columns with the Jerusalem Post he wrote: “No one believes anymore that a bloodthirsty madman like Khamenei represents Allah or The Lord … The deceit of malicious and vile mullahs no longer finds buyers in Iranian society.”
For his friends, those words emblematize both his courage and the danger he faces. “America’s promise is to protect people who speak out against tyranny," Mehdizadeh's told Iran International. “Erfan’s case is a test of that promise.”
