The Iran Labour Confederation – Abroad has issued an urgent letter to global trade unions and labor organizations warning of a rapidly escalating humanitarian catastrophe in Iran and calling for immediate, coordinated international action. The letter follows two earlier appeals in January and stresses that the situation has deteriorated to an unprecedented level.
According to the letter, tens of thousands of protesters, workers, labor activists, journalists, and civil activists have been detained, many without formal charges or notification to their families. The risk of torture, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killings, and executions is described as immediate and real. Internet access remains heavily restricted, a deliberate strategy to block documentation of repression and silence communication with the outside world.
The Confederation reports catastrophic levels of lethal violence, including mass killings on January 9 and 10, and the systematic use of gunfire aimed at protesters’ eyes, causing widespread blinding. Tens of thousands are reportedly injured, with many avoiding hospitals out of fear of arrest or death, leaving them without medical care. More than 150 children under 18 have been identified among those killed, with the real number believed to be far higher. Workers across multiple sectors—industrial laborers, nurses, teachers, retirees, and informal workers—are heavily represented among the victims, reflecting the class character of the repression amid a deep economic and livelihood crisis.
Healthcare workers, journalists, and citizen reporters are also under direct threat for assisting the injured or documenting events. The letter further warns that regional military tensions could be exploited by the Iranian authorities as a pretext for further mass repression.
The Confederation emphasizes that while global unions cannot directly meet the demands of Iranian workers, they have decisive power to mobilize public opinion and pressure governments and international institutions. The letter reiterates key demands, including the immediate release of detainees, international condemnation of state violence, suspension of diplomatic relations, securing free and unfiltered internet access, and the suspension of Iran’s membership in bodies such as the International Labour Organization.
The letter closes by thanking unions that have already shown solidarity and urges all labor organizations to move beyond statements toward concrete actions, framing this moment as a test not only of solidarity with the Iranian people, but of the credibility of universal human rights and the global labor movement itself.
Urgent Update on the Situation in Iran and Call for Immediate Action
Addressed to Global Trade Unions and Labor Organizations
Dear comrades and colleagues,
Following our two previous letters dated January 10 and January 21, we are writing to provide an urgent update on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iran and to reiterate, with the utmost seriousness, the need for immediate and concrete action by the global labor movement.
First and foremost, we must issue an urgent warning: the lives of thousands of detained protesters, labor activists, and civil and political activists are in grave and immediate danger. In many cases, arrests have been carried out without any official notification. Families are often not informed of the whereabouts of their loved ones and, in some instances, are not even told that an arrest has taken place. The risks of torture, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing, and execution are real and imminent. A coordinated, serious, and international effort to save the lives of detainees must be the top priority of all actions.
Internet access in Iran remains severely restricted. Although limited, intermittent, and highly disrupted connections have been partially restored, access to the international internet remains blocked and heavily filtered. These restrictions are deliberately imposed to prevent documentation, free communication, and the transmission of the people’s voices to the outside world, and to conceal the true масшal of the repression.
Reports received from inside the country, as well as from independent human rights organizations, indicate that the number of those killed has reached catastrophic proportions. Reports speak of tens of thousands of deaths, and the process of identifying victims by us and by human rights organizations is still ongoing. The scale of this massacre is unprecedented, extensive, and horrifying.
Once again, we are witnessing the systematic and widespread use of direct gunfire aimed at protesters’ eyes, deliberately blinding them—a method previously used in 2022, but now on a far larger scale. In just two days, January 9 and 10, a large-scale mass killing took place, demonstrating an unprecedented level of state violence against unarmed civilians.
There are also reports of tens of thousands of injured and wounded individuals. According to sources inside Iran, many of the injured have avoided hospitals out of fear of arrest, torture, or being killed by state forces. Instead, they have sought refuge in their homes or in hiding places, without access to adequate medical care, placing their lives at even greater risk.
The number of detainees has reached tens of thousands. Through widespread fabrication of cases and the use of false charges such as “terrorist acts” and “collaboration with foreign agents,” the authorities are constructing the legal pretext for issuing death sentences, long-term imprisonment, and further intensification of repression.
So far, the identities of more than 150 children under the age of 18 who have been killed have been confirmed, while the real number is undoubtedly far higher. Hundreds of members of the workforce—including workers, employees, nurses, teachers, retirees, and those employed in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy—have also been identified among the victims. As an illustrative and purely random example, we have shared with unions, in the attachment to this letter, the information and identities of approximately 170 of these victims. This represents only a very small fraction of the reality on the ground.
It must be emphasized that the primary backdrop of these protests is a deep economic and livelihood crisis, widespread poverty, and the collapse of living conditions. For this reason, the majority of protesters come from the most marginalized layers of society, particularly workers and wage earners. Consequently, it is highly likely that thousands—if not tens of thousands—of those killed are members of the working class.
At the same time, nurses, doctors, and healthcare workers are themselves at severe risk of arrest, repression, and torture. The authorities are attempting to identify anyone who has assisted the injured and to subject them to violent retaliation. This places not only the wounded, but also first responders and healthcare personnel, in serious and immediate danger.
Journalists, media workers, and citizen journalists are also facing intense repression and must be recognized as part of the workforce. Arrests, torture, silencing, and fabricated charges against them are an integral part of the state’s policy of concealing the truth.
Beyond internal repression, the very existence of the Islamic Republic has placed the people of Iran on the brink of war—a war that seriously threatens the lives of millions. The regime may use the atmosphere of war as a pretext to carry out another mass killing and to further escalate the suppression of protesters.
The demands raised by us and by other workers in Iran cannot be directly fulfilled by our colleagues in global trade unions or by workers in other countries. However, the decisive role of unions at this critical moment lies in mobilizing public opinion, organizing global solidarity, and exerting effective pressure on governments, parliaments, and international institutions to turn these demands into immediate and concrete action.
Accordingly, we once again reaffirm, with full emphasis, the core demands set out in our previous letters:
– Exert political pressure for the immediate release of all detainees and for the protection of their lives.
– Public and unequivocal condemnation of the killings, repression, and systematic human rights violations by the Iranian authorities.
– Immediate, effective, and sustained international pressure to halt the killings, torture, and mass arrests.
– Suspension of diplomatic relations and closure of Islamic Republic embassies as a measure of non-recognition of a regime committing widespread crimes against its own people.
– Immediate and sustained efforts to secure free, stable, and unfiltered internet access for the people of Iran.
– Pursuit of the suspension of the Islamic Republic’s membership in international bodies, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), due to its persistent and structural violations of fundamental labor rights.
In closing, we sincerely thank the trade unions and labor organizations around the world that have already expressed solidarity. This support is of vital importance to the workers and people of Iran, and to us.
At the same time, we ask that you inform us of the concrete actions you are planning beyond issuing statements of support. Being aware of these efforts is extremely important to us. We firmly believe that trade unions and labor movements in different countries possess real and powerful capacities to mobilize public opinion and to exert pressure on their governments. This pressure can and must be directed toward practical support for the people of Iran, from political sanctions and international pressure on the Islamic Republic to efforts to save the lives of detainees and to guarantee free access to the internet.
This is not only an act of solidarity with the people of Iran; it is a defense of universal human rights, workers’ rights, and of the global labor movement itself.
With respect and solidarity,
Iran Labour Confederation – Abroad
2 February 2026
