Britain imposed sanctions on Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a close aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and four companies accused of supporting hostile Iranian activity, a government notice showed on Thursday.
“These children in practice have no fuel for learning, and teachers and principals, because there is not even a single grocery store near the school, cannot provide them with food and often have no choice but to send students home after such incidents,” the report said.
Ronak Rostami, a social activist, told Shargh that malnutrition has become a serious problem in schools. “Many children suffer from stomach aches, abdominal pain, and general weakness, which prevents them from making effective use of classroom time,” she said.
Students in villages often leave home around six in the morning with only dry bread and a little dried yogurt to eat on their way, she added.
Broader warnings
This is not the first time media in Iran have raised alarms about child malnutrition. A study published by the daily earlier this month, based on data from non-governmental organizations and volunteers, found that only 1.7 percent of households consume protein daily, while more than a quarter consume none at all.
Among households dependent on temporary jobs, 93 percent reported eating protein less than once a week or not at all.
Dairy consumption was similarly scarce. According to the report, just 2 percent of children receive dairy daily, while half receive none at all, even in households with stable jobs.
No one thinks of breakfast in rural areas
Poor families lack both time and resources for breakfast, explained a civil activist in Khuzestan, southern Iran, who was not named in the Shargh report.
“These children do not eat breakfast, and the reason is the type of life they are accustomed to and the compulsion they face,” he said. Parents leave early for farm or livestock work, while children either help or care for siblings.
Another activist in Ilam province said: “Here no one thinks of breakfast anymore. Even if they do, they cannot afford it, and a child who has no proper nutrition during the day goes to school without breakfast."
In classrooms where children must engage both mind and body, “they have no fuel to burn,” he said, recalling repeated instances of students fainting during school line-ups.
A study published in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition in January, titled “The prevalence of malnutrition in children under 6 in Southern Iran from 2018 to 2023: a population-based study,” found that malnutrition remains a serious concern, particularly among children in rural provinces of Iran, where it has led to conditions such as stunting — impaired growth caused by chronic undernutrition.
Fada-Hossein Maleki, a member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told Didban Iran that “if the Europeans want to activate the snapback mechanism, we will also continue the war with the Zionist regime.”
Maleki argued that such a step would destabilize global and regional equations. “Triggering this mechanism will entangle many players,” he warned.
He also accused Israel of undermining diplomacy by attacking Iran during ongoing nuclear negotiations, saying: “With that aggression, we practically saw the death of diplomacy.”
"Now, the activation of the snapback mechanism would once again mean abandoning diplomacy, and if the Europeans choose this path, this time we will put forward the tools of war and continue the 12-day conflict.”
He added, “The next war will not be one that ends in 12 days, or even one or two months. Dangerous events will inevitably unfold for all countries in the region.”
Maleki said Iran’s “first step” in response to a European move would be withdrawal from the NPT. “This issue has long been on the agenda of the commission and parliament,” he said.
Britain, France and Germany — the so-called E3 — have warned Iran that unless it returns to nuclear talks by the end of August, they will trigger the mechanism that could reimpose all UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.
The lawmaker said Iran had now rebuilt its military readiness after the 12-day conflict and was “prepared for offensive operations in case of any new confrontation.”
For decades, Afghans have formed the backbone of Iran’s low-wage workforce, filling jobs few Iranians were willing to take.
Their sudden absence now threatens both growth and jobs.
Conservative economist Mohammad-Hossein Mesbah called the push to send Afghans home “economic suicide.”
“Abbasabad industrial town [south of Tehran] was almost entirely closed today,” he posted on X. “Why? Shortage of labor. Job ads everywhere … Not a single worker to be found.”
From open borders to expulsions
Before the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the Afghan population in Iran rarely exceeded two million, including about 780,000 with official refugee status. Under former President Ebrahim Raisi’s “open borders” policy, that number surged to more than seven million.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has since reversed course under public pressure.
Following Iran’s recent 12-day conflict with Israel, the government accelerated the deportation of undocumented Afghans, linking some expulsions to national security.
Officials say more than one million migrants have left in the past 100 days, though an estimated six million remain—four million without legal status.
The government has vowed to enforce labor laws, including fines of around $20 per day for undocumented workers, doubling for repeat offenses. Yet enforcement remains patchy in sectors long dependent on informal labor.
Afghans’ role in the Iranian workforce
According to the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, 433,000 registered Afghan workers were active as of June 2025—roughly 2 percent of the total labor force.
More than half worked in construction, while others were employed in industry (19 percent), agriculture (11 percent), and mining (less than 1 percent).
A Chamber of Commerce study noted that Afghans, once concentrated in unskilled jobs, had increasingly moved into skilled and technical roles.
Their disappearance is now raising alarms about productivity and output across the economy.
Industry and construction hit hardest
The owner of an industrial workshop in Boumehen, near Tehran, told Shargh newspaper that even legally employed Afghans have left in fear. “We still haven’t found replacements, and nobody responds to our job ads,” he said.
Construction has been hit hardest.
In 2024, estimates suggested that Afghans made up three-quarters of Iran’s 1.5 million construction workers, and nearly half of those in Tehran.
With deportations underway, projects have stalled, and labor costs have jumped by 30–50 percent. The spike is expected to push housing costs even further out of reach.
Rising costs for food and services
Agriculture has also been disrupted. Farmers report delays in harvesting summer fruits and other perishable produce, including pistachios and saffron—two of Iran’s top non-oil exports.
Higher labor costs threaten to drive up food prices at a time when inflation is already high.
Urban services are showing strain as well.
In Tehran, the deportation of hundreds of Afghan street cleaners employed by municipal contractors has left piles of garbage and recyclables in some neighborhoods. Overflowing trash has become a visible sign of how deeply the deportations are reshaping daily life.
Some contractors have lost up to 80 percent of their workforce, according to city official Naser Amani.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said Shamkhani, son of former national security chief Ali Shamkhani, had “facilitated and provided support to hostile activity by the Government of Iran, namely activity which is intended to cause the destabilization of the United Kingdom or any other country including Israel and Ukraine.”
"Iran’s reliance on revenues from trading networks and connected organisations enables it to carry out its destabilising activities, including supporting proxies and partners across the region and facilitating state threats on UK soil," read a statement. "Disrupting Iran’s malign influence and keeping the British people safe remains our number one priority."
Shamkhani, listed under multiple aliases including “Hector,” was among five new entries added to the UK Sanctions List, which freezes their assets and bars UK nationals and firms from doing business with them.
The companies designated were Admiral Shipping Group, Milavous Group, Ocean Leonid Investments, and Iran’s Petrochemical Commercial Company. Britain said some of the firms were acting on behalf of Shamkhani and had provided logistical and financial support for Iran’s destabilizing activities abroad.
The measures come weeks after Washington announced its largest Iran-related sanctions package since 2018, targeting what it described as Shamkhani’s “global shipping empire” that moved Iranian and Russian oil, generating billions of dollars.
The US Treasury accused the Shamkhani family of leveraging political influence to evade sanctions, using false identities, shell companies, and frequent vessel reflagging to conceal ownership.
“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time.
Ali Shamkhani, a former defense minister and longtime secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was sanctioned by the United States in 2020. He remains a senior adviser to Khamenei.
