A woman sits outside her destroyed apartment in Tehran on Thursday after it was damaged by an air strike while she was inside.Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters
Millions of Iranians have been displaced inside Iran, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as they flee from the capital, Tehran, and other cities to northern, rural areas to seek safety as the United States vows to increase its attacks on the country.
The UNHCR said that between 600,000 and one million Iranian households are now temporarily displaced, which represents up to 3.2 million people. This number is expected to rise, exacerbating the humanitarian situation. That estimate is based on information from Iranian authorities.
Ayaki Ito, the UNHCR director of emergency and program support and cross-regional refugee response co-ordinator for the Middle East emergency, told The Globe and Mail in an interview that he’s concerned about the protection of civilians. More than 1,300 Iranians have been killed in the conflict, according to Iranian officials.
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The longer Iranians are displaced from their homes, he said, “the more economic hardships and humanitarian concern increases. So we are monitoring the situation very closely.”
Mr. Ito said even before the conflict, the UNHCR had a large presence in Iran, to support the refugees living there. (Iran hosts the one of the world’s largest Afghan populations, about 4.4 million, of whom about two million are undocumented or refugees.) So far, the agency is not supporting internally displaced Iranians, but he said they are in frequent communication with authorities, and stand ready to help.
He said they have heard from Afghan refugees who live in urban areas, many of whom have lost their livelihoods and are grappling with soaring prices of food and medicine. While there is a disproportionate level of economic vulnerability among refugees, everyone is enduring the same security situation.
“The bombs and the missiles are indiscriminate,” he said. “Many people are just waiting out, hoping, really, to see peace and stability. Guns going silent.”
Nobody wants to leave their homes, Mr. Ito said, adding he understands why Iranians are trying to find safety in rural areas while they wait to see how the situation will evolve.
Dan Tyler, Norwegian Refugee Council’s head of advocacy for Europe and Asia, said the NRC is one of the few international organizations working inside Iran.
Currently, their support is limited to the Afghan refugee population under the permission they have from Iranian authorities, he said, but they are looking for ways to expand their support to include vulnerable Iranians and internally displaced Iranians. This would require permission from officials as well as donor support, he said.
Mr. Tyler said the bombardment is having a devastating impact on civilians and much of the world’s attention has been on missile strikes rather than the human cost of the escalating war.
“I think it’s important to stress the nature in which people are fleeing,” he said, noting they’re leaving their homes with very little and it’s difficult to find safe shelter. He also mentioned the millions of undocumented Afghans inside Iran, often sheltering in place without the means to escape.
“They will also be the ones for which the humanitarian consequences are really most dire.”