Causes and Characteristics of the Immigration of Afghan Citizens to Iran and Its Impact on the National Security of the Islamic Republic of Iran After the Islamic Revolution

National and international incidents affecting the situation in Afghanistan, especially during the past four decades, have displaced millions of Afghans to other countries, including Iran. During this period, the lack of significant improvement in Afghanistan's security, political and economic situation has caused displacement of over one million Afghan refugees and over one and a half million non-refugee Afghans (including unauthorized /undocumented ones) to Iran. Causes and characteristics of Afghan nationals’ immigration to Iran, the impact of this incident on Iran's national security, are questions that have been dealt within this article. In this research, the descriptive-analytical method has been used. By using existing documents, it has been tried to collect information and described the concepts, principles, strategies and structure in the above mentioned field. The results of this research show that current laws and administrative arrangements as it was expected, could not address the issues of the large number of Afghan nationals in the country. Also, the multiplicity of power centres, variety of decision maker bodies on foreign nationals, has caused various challenges in the field of national security.