“My son’s fate has been unknown since he returned to Iran about six months ago. He returned after receiving an ‘assurance letter’ from the Iranian consulate in Sulaymaniyah,” says Fatemeh Mahmoudi, the mother of Sardar, in an interview with Alhurra. Like many Iranian expats, the young Sardar decided to return to Iran in response to repeated calls from Tehran urging expats, especially dissidents, to come back under the promises of “amnesty” and job opportunities. Sardar had been a day laborer in Sulaymaniyah. When he eventually lost his job, he fell prey to the trap of his government’s promises of safety, his mother says. He received a “letter” in which the Iranian authorities informed him that he would not face arrest upon entering the country. “Even though I begged him not to go back, he didn’t listen to me and returned,” she adds. Sardar’s mother did not follow her son back and stayed in the Kurdistan Region. Her relatives in Iran have been searching for him, but Iranian security agencies have not yet revealed to the family where he was being held or why he was arrested. All she knows is that shortly after entering Iran, he was detained by a unit affiliated with the Iranian Ettela’at (intelligence services).
Iranian human-rights activists and experts tell Alhurra that for years, the authorities have never stopped trying to lure opposition figures and Iranian refugees back to the country with promises of exoneration and privileges—only to arrest them as soon as they arrive. In July, Iran’s parliament approved a law titled “Support, Protection, and Care for the Rights of Iranians Abroad and Their Identity and Social Capital.” The law focuses on “attracting elite” Iranians living overseas. Under this law, the Iranian Foreign Ministry created an online portal for Iranians abroad to enter their information and check whether they have any issues that would prevent them from traveling to Iran. If no issues pop up, they receive a “green mark” as a reassurance signal. The semi-official Khabar Online, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, quoted Iran’s Deputy Minister for Human Rights and International Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, Askar Jalalian, as saying:
“Under the draft law for the protection of Iranians abroad, individuals who left the country illegally will not be punished and may return home without any concerns.” But the human-rights group Hengaw, which monitors abuses in Iran, says the two Iranian consulates in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region actively work to “entice Iranian Kurds, especially dissidents, with an ‘assurance letter’ to return to Iran.” “Most of those who were deceived by these official calls—who obtained an assurance letter and returned—have been sentenced to prison. Others are awaiting trial in detention centers. Their charges remain unclear, and their fate is unknown,” says Jila Mostajer, a member of Hengaw’s administrative board, speaking to Alhurra.
Mostajer adds that since the launch of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement in September 2022, the Iranian government has intensified efforts to bring back Iranians from abroad, especially those who are opposed to its ideology or those who fled the country for political or security reasons. She says the authorities want dissidents to return because they fear these individuals will continue to expos the regime’s abuses to the international community. According to Mostajer, offering amnesty is just one of many tactics the Iranian intelligence service uses to lure expatriates back. “Domestically, The regime wants to show citizens that it can grab and bring back anyone who opposes it—even if staying abroad. Whether by kidnapping them or by tempting them with false amnesty to return voluntarily, Iranian expats are being arrested and imprisoned or executed.”
One of the most prominent cases is that of Iranian American journalist Reza Vali-Zadeh, who returned to Iran in 2023 and was immediately arrested. His lawyer announced last December that he had been sentenced to ten years in prison. He was transferred to Evin Prison after the verdict. Last September, Vali-Zadeh’s brother told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Reza and a group of inmates were relocated to Fashafouyeh Prison after an Israeli strike on the Evin Prison gate on June 25. He said his brother suffered from asthma and that his health deteriorated significantly due to overcrowding, poor medical conditions and severe neglect at Fashafouyeh prison. Iranian American investigative journalist and activist Reza Farnood argue that the so-called invitations to expatriate to return “are not gestures of goodwill,” but rather “a high-risk political maneuver and a trap wrapped in deceitful polite language.” “Once again, the same old messages reach Iranians abroad: Come back. Your case is closed, and nothing will happen to you. The tone may sound frustratingly friendly, but the timing reveals a great deal. Whenever the diaspora gains political momentum or international scrutiny intensifies, the Islamic Republic resurrects this tactic,” Farnood tells Alhurra. He notes that these invitations first appeared in their current form in 1997 under President Mohammad Khatami. At the time, Iranian officials insisted they were destroying the security files of returnees. But those promises evaporated the moment the returnees set foot on Iranian soil. Farnood concludes that many who accepted the offer and returned were immediately arrested, blindfolded and interrogated and placed under surveillance and travel bans. “The pattern used by the Islamic Republic is crystal clear: soft promises abroad and harsh tactics at home,” he says. The goal, he explains, is to ease foreign political pressure, fragment opposition networks, and reassert control through selective reintegration.
Iranian authorities claim the new law supporting Iranians abroad is intended to engage expatriates and to benefit from their scientific and technological expertise in the advancement of the country’s development. During a meeting with the parliamentary bloc supporting Iranians abroad, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi emphasized “the importance of strengthening the role of Iranians overseas in domestic decision-making,” according to the official IRNA news agency.
Iranian political analyst Farzin Karbasi, who lives outside Iran, points to another objective from this initiative. “The Iranian regime treats returnees with dual citizenships as hostages and later exchanges them for its diplomats who get detained in Europe for carrying out assassinations and terrorist attacks. This policy has been in place since the 1980s,” Karbasi tells Alhurra. According to Karbasi—whose gets information from a wide network of activists and human-rights defenders in Iran—not a single day passes without security forces arresting several returnees, including foreigners who come to Iran for tourism. Sardar’s mother, who is consumed with anxiety over her son’s fate after months of detention, has not lost hope of learning what happened to him. Through Alhurra, she urges the international community and human rights organizations to pressure Iranian authorities to release him and other detainees who were lured into the trap of Iran’s “assurance letter.”
