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.
Kazakhstan is open to expanding its oil export routes through Azerbaijan and advancing joint energy infrastructure projects across the Caspian region,...
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova praised Georgia for resisting Western pressure (30 May), defending its national interests and pu...
More than 1,500 pages of government documents relating to Peter Mandelson's appointment and tenure as UK ambassador to the U.S. have been published, r...
As Armenia approaches parliamentary elections, Russia appears to be increasing political and economic pressure on Yerevan, signalling that closer inte...
Afghanistan’s consul general in Mashhad and the governor of Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province have discussed expanding trade, improving border trans...
Afghanistan’s consul general in Mashhad and the governor of Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province have discussed expanding trade, improving border transit and accelerating the transfer of Afghan prisoners.
Central Asia is facing growing water stress after five consecutive years of drought, with rising temperatures, depleted soil moisture and shrinking groundwater reserves placing increasing pressure on the region, according to a new EU report.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Monday they targeted the source of an attack on a telecom facility on Sirik Island near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim News Agency reported.
Donald Trump said he is “in no hurry” to reach a deal with Iran, insisting the U.S. is slowly getting what it wants. He warned military action remains an option if talks fail. Meanwhile, U.S. forces said they fired a missile at a vessel trying to breach Washington’s blockade of Iran.
U.S. rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, performed to a crowd of 118,000 people in Istanbul on Saturday night, marking his first concert in Europe in more than a decade, despite being barred from performing in several countries over past antisemitic remarks.
Okinawa lost transport links and suffered widespread power outages on Monday (1 June) as Severe Tropical Storm Jangmi brought destructive winds and heavy rain to Japan's south-western islands.
Donald Trump said he is “in no hurry” to reach a deal with Iran, insisting the U.S. is slowly getting what it wants. He warned military action remains an option if talks fail. Meanwhile, U.S. forces said they fired a missile at a vessel trying to breach Washington’s blockade of Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has held talks with Lebanese President and Israeli Prime Minister on efforts to ease tensions between Israel and Lebanon. According to a U.S. official, Washington has proposed a plan aimed at achieving a gradual de-escalation of hostilities.
The World Health Organisation’s designation of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is a stark reminder that Ebola remains a persistent global health threat rather than a disease of the past.
When Armenians vote on 7 June, they will be voting in an election shaped by months of political change and a rapidly deepening relationship with the European Union. The result may not only determine who governs Armenia but also the future direction of the country's geopolitical alignment.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will resume operations on 2 June after extensive modernisation works. Officials from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye are set to gather in Akhalkalaki for a launch event marking the reopening of one of the Middle Corridor's most important transport links.
Kazakhstan is open to expanding its oil export routes through Azerbaijan and advancing joint energy infrastructure projects across the Caspian region, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov told AnewZ in an exclusive interview in Baku.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova praised Georgia for resisting Western pressure (30 May), defending its national interests and pursuing a "multi-vector foreign policy" - language that closely mirrors the rhetoric of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
As Armenia approaches parliamentary elections, Russia appears to be increasing political and economic pressure on Yerevan, signalling that closer integration with the EU could lead to significant changes in labour, transport and energy arrangements between the two countries.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment