Iran International
Departures from Iran are on the rise since a 12-day war with Israel in June as heightened surveillance and moribund prospects at home push some households to liquidate assets and leave.
“Before the war, most trips we handled were touristic," an immigration police officer at Tehran’s Khomeini airport told Iran International on condition of anonymity.
Since the 12-day war in June, "departures have multiplied, and many who left have not returned after a month or two — a clear sign they have decided not to come back."
The officer said it is no longer just the young. Middle-aged and even elderly people are also leaving to shield themselves from the war’s direct and indirect threats.
Pejman, 46, a freelance remote designer, said he had recently rebuilt a life in Tehran after two years in Tbilisi, Georgia, earning $3,000 a month, renting a large apartment and buying nice furniture and a car before the Israeli war.
“This war forced me to leave Tehran and ask my in-laws to sell everything and send me the proceeds,” he said. “I cannot return because the authorities may arrest me for working with companies abroad.”
He cited a widening dragnet involving arrests and executions for his fears.
Iran has arrested over 20,000 people after the war with Israel, mostly on charges of cooperating with hostile countries or spying for Israel, according to judiciary officials.
“They don't care if you are a lawful freelancer with no political ties. One of my friends was arrested and accused of espionage. They told him, ‘You are not allowed to work with US-based companies.’”
Pejman’s wife recounted a hurried liquidation of life as they knew it and flight.
“We sold our car, we sold our household goods, we sold everything. There was no way out,” she said. “With every ring of the doorbell we trembled, thinking agents had come to arrest my husband.”
The family now waits in Turkey, seeking passage to Germany.
Work strangled by outages and a broken internet
Behrouz, 51, an online interpreter in Tehran, said daily electricity blackouts and patchy internet have gutted his income for UK- and US-based language firms.
“Six months ago I could interpret five to six hours a day for migrants and patients in hospitals, courts and social services abroad,” he said. “Daily power cuts reduced that to three or four hours. Since the war, internet restrictions have piled on the outages, and I barely manage one or two hours in long sittings.”
He and his family are preparing to sell their apartment to fund an exit. “I have to go somewhere safe with stable internet,” he said. “Most of the companies I work for are US-based, and I could be accused of cooperating with what they call hostile states.”
His wife outlined a reluctant plan. “We will go to a visa-free country like Turkey, Armenia, or even Qatar, and then file a case to move somewhere safe,” she said. “This is not the migration we wanted. This government forced us.”
She contrasted local wages with the risk of remote work. “They pay $200 to $300 a month here, and when my husband finally secured a remote job that pays ten times more, the clerics would not let us live,” she said.
“They restrict the internet because they fear being overthrown. They fear everyone and everything, and they sacrifice people to stay in power.”
From airport counters to flats cleared out under duress, interviewees described a decisive break rather than seasonal travel. For Pejman’s family, the fear is arrest; for Behrouz’s, a livelihood stifled by outages and a failing network.
The shock of the 12-day war has rippled far beyond the front, turning departures into open-ended exits — homes sold, schools missed, savings converted into tickets — and leaving behind a grim future that many no longer dare to reclaim.
Esmaeilion, a human rights activist and member of the board of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, said demonstrations will be held simultaneously in more than 20 cities across the globe.
In a video posted on X, he confirmed he would join a Toronto rally on September 14, marking the third anniversary of the 2022 protests that erupted nationwide following the death of Mahsa Amini.
He said similar gatherings were being organized in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Nuremberg, Geneva, Gothenburg, London, Barcelona, Turku, Ghent, Ottawa, Montreal, Houston, San Francisco, Sydney, Wellington and Christchurch. Events are scheduled between September 13 and 16.
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was arrested by Iran’s morality police on September 13, 2022, for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab law. She collapsed in custody and died two days later, igniting months of nationwide unrest that rights groups say left at least 551 people dead, including dozens of women and children.
In his video, Esmaeilion said he would also attend a marathon in Toronto in memory of political prisoners and victims of executions, naming Sharifeh Mohammadi, Varisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi among those he wished to honor.
He also expressed solidarity with Kurdish teachers dismissed or exiled in recent months, prisoners on hunger strike, and Mehran Bahramian, who was executed earlier in the month.
Last year, the second anniversary of Amini’s death saw protests from Melbourne and Tokyo to European capitals, with diaspora groups chanting Woman, Life, Freedom and calling for international sanctions on Iran’s leadership. The Los Angeles City Council renamed an intersection in the city’s Iranian district to mark the anniversary.
Rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have said Iran’s crackdown on the protests amounted to crimes against humanity. A UN fact-finding mission said widespread and systemic repression, particularly against women and girls, has continued since 2022.
Esmaeilion, whose wife and daughter were killed when Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane in 2020, has become a prominent voice among the Iranian diaspora.
He urged Iranians abroad to use the anniversary to amplify calls for justice and to ensure, he said, that “the world does not forget.”
Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang works closely with the Cartel of the Suns, a network of military elites long accused of moving cocaine in collaboration with Hezbollah, the report said.
“President Trump has taken numerous actions to curtail Iran’s terrorist proxies like Hezbollah,” State Department spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
“The president has proven that he will hold any terrorist group accountable that threatens the national security of our country by smuggling narcotics intended to kill Americans.”
Hezbollah’s role: laundering and logistics
Brian Townsend, a retired DEA special agent, called last week’s US maritime strike near Venezuela “a decisive blow against narco-terrorists.” He said Hezbollah’s role is pivotal yet often out of view.
“They don’t get their hands dirty. Instead, they launder and provide networks to help cartels send money through the Middle East. Simply, they take a cut from the drug trade, which then funds their operations in the Middle East,” he said, adding that Hezbollah has become “a main finance and money launderer for narco-terrorism groups like Tren de Aragua.”
Townsend and other experts pointed to state complicity as the key enabler. Under Nicolás Maduro and Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan officials and infrastructure have been tied in US indictments and sanctions designations to cocaine shipments protected by senior officers in the Cartel of the Suns, they said, with Hezbollah-linked facilitators processing portions of the proceeds.
Diaspora links and state support
Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Hezbollah’s reach hinges on the region’s Lebanese Shia diaspora. “Hezbollah is the connector between the diaspora and Iran,” he said.
Through family ties, imams, religious centers and educational programs, he added, the group forges contacts with local cartels, sells drugs and channels profits back to Lebanon via elaborate schemes.
Citrinowicz cast Venezuela as Iran’s anchor in the Western Hemisphere, pointing to deepening military and economic ties -- from Iranian-assembled UAV production for the Venezuelan army and regular Quds Force flights via Africa, to training on sanctions evasion and billions in capital injections.
He said Tehran’s footprint is effectively tethered to Nicolás Maduro’s rule and would lose its most important Latin American stronghold if he left office.
“As long as Maduro is there, the Iranians will be there,” he said. “If Maduro goes, Iran will lose the most important stronghold of its activity in Latin America.”
Townsend argued the most effective leverage is financial: target facilitators, disrupt logistics, pursue indictments, and squeeze the money flows so cocaine shipments become less profitable.
“The priority is to attack the financial and logistical networks, indict everyone we can and pressure Maduro,” Townsend said. “If we can cut off the financial arteries, the cocaine won’t be as profitable.”
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 39th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran, Pezeshkian said, “We have no quarrel with any Muslim country and are not seeking conflict. We are committed to the unity of the Islamic Ummah.”
He told participants that external powers sought to profit from discord among Muslims. “The enemy sells weapons to Islamic countries, takes their resources, and wants to set us against each other,” Pezeshkian said. “If the Islamic community were united, could America, Israel or any other country violate the rights of Muslims?”
“The problem is us, not America or Israel. The problem lies in the disputes, divisions and quarrels we have among ourselves.”
The president said Iran considered all Muslims as brothers, including Palestinians, Iraqis, Egyptians, Qataris and Emiratis. “This is not only a slogan, but our belief,” he added, pointing to what he described as Iran’s resilience during the recent 12-day war with Israel.
He said Iran’s unity had prevented its adversaries from achieving their goals.
“The enemy thought a few missiles would make our people turn against the system, but instead the people showed solidarity,” Pezeshkian said. He added that while military power was important, the stronger “slap” to Iran’s enemies had come from national unity.
He also urged Islamic leaders and scholars to promote justice and brotherhood. “You are the elders of religion and must spread the Prophet’s message of justice and unity. We may have differences of opinion, but we must not act against unity,” he said.
The president said Iran appreciated condemnation by Muslim countries of US and Israeli actions but insisted more collective action was needed. “If we act sincerely and on the basis of justice and piety, the other side will surrender,” Pezeshkian said. “This conference is a beginning to break division and establish the brotherhood ordered by the Prophet.”
The 39th International Islamic Unity Conference will run from September 8-10 in Tehran with the theme “The Prophet of Mercy and the Islamic Ummah.” Organizers said more than 1,000 participants, including 80 scholars, 210 foreign guests and 2,800 activists from across the Muslim world, are attending.