Iran says one million undocumented Afghan refugees have returned to their country with the majority of them voluntarily in the last six and half months criticising the international donors for their less-than-savoury contribution to the refugee programmes.

“About one million undocumented Afghan refugees have left Iran to their homeland through the Dogharoun border crossing since 21 March, marking start of the new year in Iran,” said the governor of Taybad in Khorasan Razavi Province, Hossein Jamshidi.

He told the Administrative Council members of the eastern county bordering Afghanistan that 90% of unauthorised Afghan citizens voluntarily arrived at the Dogharoun border to return to their country, according to IRNA news agency.

Last month, Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said during a visit to the border with Afghanistan that 2 million undocumented Afghans are still in Iran.

“By March 20 next year,” he added, “the government is preparing for the gradual repatriation of around one more million undocumented Afghans who entered the country illegally.”

Iran plans to reduce the total number of documented refugees to 3 million to match the 3% global standard as its current population of 87 million is expected to hit 90 million next year.

In the meantime, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has praised Iran’s services to Afghan immigrants in a meeting between its Senior Director of Office of Strategy and Organizational Performance, Kim Eling and the Deputy Minister of Interior, Seyed Mohammad Bathaei, in Geneva, IRNA reported.

In the meeting held on Monday on the sidelines of the 76th session of the Executive Committee of the UN Refugee Agency, Eling appreciated Iran’s efforts in hosting Afghan nationals, and cited the reduction in the aid from donor countries as the main challenge, the report said.

“Despite the cruel sanctions, we have provided outstanding services to the Afghan refugees over the past four decades,” the Iranian official said slamming the weak international support.

He expressed hope that donor countries will allocate appropriate financial assistance to the refugee welfare programs in Iran.

The majority of refugees are Afghan nationals who fled to neighbouring Iran from the Soviet Union’s occupation and the civil war in their country in the last 40 years.

On Monday, Iran and Pakistan which are shouldering the burden of refugees’ influx from the war-torn Afghanistan, discussed the developments in their neighbouring country ahead of Moscow Format meeting in Moscow.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Director General of South Asia Mohammadreza Bahrami and Pakistan’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq Khan met in the Russian capital prior to the 7th meeting of the Moscow Format of Consultations on Afghanistan which opened on Tuesday.

The Moscow Format on Afghanistan includes Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The foreign minister of Afghan’s interim administration Amir Khan Muttaqi on Monday departed for Russia for the first time to attend the Moscow Format talks, local sources said.

In July, Russia recognised the Taliban administration as the official government of Afghanistan, making it the first country to do so.
 

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