120 Iranian Nationals Facing Deportation From US Under Trump Administration's Immigration Enforcement

The United States has previously deported several Iranian nationals, including many Christians, as part of ongoing immigration enforcement. (Representational)

On Tuesday, Iran announced that 120 of its citizens being deported from the United States under President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies would return to their homeland this week.

"120 individuals are scheduled for deportation and will be flown back over the coming days," stated Hossein Noushabadi, a foreign ministry consular affairs official, in comments to the Tasnim news agency.

"The US immigration service has determined to deport approximately 400 Iranians currently residing in the United States, with the majority having entered illegally."

According to The New York Times, around 100 Iranians who had sought asylum in the United States were being returned to Iran under an agreement reached between Washington and Tehran.

The report indicated that this unusual arrangement between the long-standing adversaries resulted from several months of diplomatic negotiations.

When contacted by AFP for comment, the US State Department did not provide an immediate response.

The newspaper reported that a charter aircraft commissioned by US authorities departed from Louisiana on Monday evening and was expected to land in Tehran on Tuesday after making a stopover in Qatar.

The report described these deportations as "the most stark push yet by the Trump administration to deport migrants even to places with harsh human rights conditions."

Earlier in the year, the United States had already deported several Iranians, many of whom were Christians, to Central American countries including Costa Rica and Panama.