AsiaNews Iran's Afghanistan Desk — The rapid departure and deportation of Afghan migrants in the summer of 2025 created a visible labour shock in Tehran. Waste bins overflowed in some districts, contractors struggled to maintain green spaces, and reports pointed to shortages at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. What appeared to be a temporary staffing problem was actually the exposure of a system built for years on vulnerable labour.
Contemporary Iranian reports estimated that Tehran employed roughly 10,000 street cleaners, around 6,000 of them foreign nationals. Municipal and media estimates varied, but some suggested that several thousand Afghan workers left within a short period. The exact figure was contested; the operational disruption was not.
Services affected by the labour shortage
| Area |
Immediate pressure |
Structural weakness exposed |
| Waste collection |
Delayed clearing of bins and streets |
Contractor reliance on low-paid migrant labour |
| Green spaces |
Fewer maintenance crews |
Limited trained replacement pool |
| Behesht-e Zahra |
Staff shortages in difficult work |
Poor pay and demanding conditions |
| Construction services |
Slower projects |
Informal recruitment chains |
Not simply a story of workers being fired
The phrase “Afghan workers were fired” does not fully describe what happened. Many migrants were deported, pressured to leave or departed because their legal and economic position had become untenable. Treating the episode only as a municipal hiring dispute erases both the coercive migration context and the years in which contractors benefited from workers who had weak bargaining power.
Afghan labourers often accepted physically demanding night work for wages and conditions that many Iranian workers rejected. That was not evidence that the jobs belonged naturally to migrants; it was evidence that the employment model had been allowed to become unattractive and insecure.
A city cannot call a workforce disposable for years and then discover overnight that its most basic services depend on those same people.
What a sustainable response would require
- Transparent municipal contracts and enforceable wage standards.
- Legal recruitment rather than informal subcontracting.
- Protective equipment, insurance and predictable shifts for all workers.
- A transition plan that does not scapegoat Afghans or leave residents without services.
Tehran later sought Iranian replacements, but recruitment could not be solved merely by advertising vacancies. Unless pay and working conditions matched the difficulty of the job, shortages were likely to persist. The lesson extends beyond one city: irregular migration and municipal outsourcing had become intertwined, and abrupt enforcement exposed the cost of avoiding reform.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Tehran's services face disruption?
Thousands of Afghan workers who had performed municipal and contractor jobs left or were deported over a short period, and trained replacements were not immediately available.
Which services were most affected?
Waste collection, street cleaning, green-space maintenance, construction work and some services at Behesht-e Zahra were among those reported under pressure.
What should Tehran change to protect both workers and essential services? Share your view in the comments below this report with readers of AsiaNews Iran.