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Around 100,000 people have fled Tehran in the first two days of military strikes by the United States and Israel, the United Nations refugee agency said Wednesday, revealing the scale of civilian displacement triggered by the escalation.
A UNHCR situation report documented a significant internal exodus from the Iranian capital, with road police logging between 1,000 and 2,000 vehicles leaving the city each day, mostly heading toward northern provinces.
Despite the sharp rise in internal displacement, the agency reported that cross-border movement has so far remained stable. The Islam Qala border crossing with Afghanistan is showing "no significant changes," according to the report, while the Milak crossing reopened on Monday.
The relative calm at border points stands in contrast to the chaos inside Iran's borders, where the total number of internally displaced people has now reached 275,400.
The UNHCR warned that the military escalation has compounded an already fragile humanitarian landscape. The affected areas were home to 24.6 million forcibly displaced people before the latest hostilities began, many of whom the agency said "already face significant protection risks and humanitarian needs, alongside host communities."
Host communities in Afghanistan, Iran and Lebanon are now facing acute protection risks as the crisis deepens, raising concerns about the capacity of already overstretched aid infrastructure to absorb further waves of displacement.
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