News blog about the war in the Middle East
Iran refugees: EU warns of conditions like 2015
Updated March 5, 2026 – 9:49 p.mReading time: 69 minutes
London increases its military presence in the Gulf. Azerbaijan is temporarily closing its airspace. The EU warns of a new refugee movement. All developments in the news blog.
The EU Commission considers a significant refugee movement to be possible due to the Iran war. “If the crisis continues, there could be a risk of a humanitarian crisis in Iran and neighboring countries, migration movements like those in 2015,” says an internal report that is available to the magazine “Spiegel” and the ARD magazine Report from Mainz.
The EU protocol note goes on to say that there are still no concrete figures on refugee flows. But “movements towards rural areas and the coast” can already be observed. The EU Commission is particularly concerned about the situation of around 2.5 million Afghans in Iran. If the country continues to be destabilized, they could flee to neighboring countries, according to internal correspondence at an EU meeting on Wednesday.
Turkey in particular, as the main destination country for refugees from Iran, is “worried,” it continues. The Turkish government is considering setting up “buffer zones” at the border and a tent city for up to 90,000 refugees, the Turkish interior minister announced on Wednesday.
According to Kiev, the USA has asked Ukraine for support in defending against Iranian drones. “We have received a request from the United States to provide specific support in the Middle East to protect against ‘Shahed,'” wrote Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday in the online service X, referring to the Iranian-made combat drones. He ordered that “the necessary resources” and “Ukrainian specialists” be made available for this purpose.
Those returning from the Gulf will probably have to cover the costs of their return flight themselves. This is what the ministry of Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says. Read the full article here.
After two drones launched from Iran hit Azerbaijan, the leadership in Baku threatened retaliation. Azerbaijan’s head of state Ilham Aliyev accused Tehran on Thursday of a “terrorist” drone attack on an airport and near a school. At the same time, the country announced the closure of its southern airspace for a period of twelve hours.
Azerbaijan’s ally Türkiye “strongly condemned” the attack on Azerbaijan. Tehran denied the attack and in turn blamed Israel. However, according to consistent reports, Israel is considered to be an arms supplier to Azerbaijan.
