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Iran Suspends Visa-free Entry For Indians; Here's Why
Kashmir Observer
|November 19,2025 Issue
Iran has suspended visa-free entry for Indian nationals starting November 22, 2025, after a spike in human trafficking, fake job rackets and kidnapping incidents involving Indians who were lured to the country under the guise of employment or onward travel to third nations. The move marks a major rollback of a facility Iran had introduced in February 2024 to boost tourism.
The decision comes amid mounting concerns from both Tehran and New Delhi over organised criminal networks misusing the visa waiver to traffic Indians—many of whom ended up abducted for ransom.
What triggered the suspension
According to both the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi and India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), dozens of Indian nationals were duped by unauthorised agents who promised lucrative jobs or assured them that Iran would merely be a “transit point” en route to Europe, Australia or Central Asia.
Instead, many victims were kidnapped by trafficking syndicates and held in illegal detention, and families were asked to pay ransom, sometimes running into millions of rupees.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal recently confirmed that several Indians were “lured on false promises” and then “kidnapped upon arrival in Iran", prompting urgent diplomatic interventions.
Iran's formal announcement
The Iranian Embassy, in an official post on X, said:
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