20 June 2025 – World Refugee Day & Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners

Written by ACI in 20 June 25

Statement by the Association des Chercheurs Iraniens

20 June 2025 – World Refugee Day & Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners

Today, as the international community marks World Refugee Day and the Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, we are reminded that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, exile and imprisonment are not accidents of fate — they are instruments of state repression.

For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic has waged a sustained campaign of ideological, political, and social persecution. This has produced one of the largest displaced populations in the world. Near 9 million Iranians live in exile — a staggering figure for a nation of some 90 million. Few families in Iran remain untouched by displacement; few Iranians abroad are untouched by the pain of separation, statelessness, or surveillance.

“Today, the machinery of oppression continues to grind on. Even amid a worsening regional crisis, Iran’s rulers are not easing their grip — they are tightening it. We are receiving reports of a total internet blackout in parts of the country, which has severed communication between families and cut off the world’s access to unfolding events inside Iran. We fear this is not merely a security measure, but a deliberate attempt to conceal mass arrests, enforced disappearances, and further human rights violations.”

Our concern is heightened by alarming recent developments. In Kermanshah’s Dizel Abad prison, at least ten prisoners were shot dead — reportedly for protesting conditions. Human rights defenders and activists are being arrested in waves. We are hearing of unscheduled and expedited executions on vague national security charges. With no access to legal representation, no independent oversight, and no press freedom, Iran’s prisons are becoming execution chambers in the shadows.

Meanwhile, we note a growing number of refugees at the Iran-Turkey border, with reports suggesting a new wave of displacement is already underway — a tragic but predictable outcome of repression, economic desperation, and rising insecurity.

On this World Refugee Day, and this Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, we issue this call:

• To the international community: Recognise the scale and urgency of Iran’s human rights crisis. Offer protection and support to Iranian refugees and asylum seekers, and hold the Iranian authorities accountable for the treatment of prisoners.

• To international media: Do not allow Iran’s internet blackout to render its people invisible.

• To the Iranian diaspora: Continue to raise your voices for those silenced, and work in solidarity to protect those forced into exile or kept behind bars.

Displacement and imprisonment are two faces of the same brutal regime. We stand in solidarity with all those forced from their homes, and with all those behind bars for daring to speak, resist, or simply survive with dignity.