UNHRC official praises Iran’s support for refugees

The representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHRC) in Iran, Bernard Doyle, has praised the Islamic Republic for supporting the refugees residing in the country.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s measures in supporting foreign refugees are highly laudable, Doyle told reporters in the Iranian city of Shiraz on Wednesday.

He said that the main objective of the UNHRC was to support Iran in assisting refugees. Doyle added that Iran has rendered good services to the refugees, in particular in educating and training them.

He added that the UNHRC mainly cooperates with the Iranian Interior Ministry’s Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA) but it also worked with other relevant bodies, including the Iranian ministries for education and health.

Over the past three decades, Iran has been hosting many refugees from neighboring countries especially Afghanistan. Tehran has, however, received little international support.

Aziz Kazemi, the director general of BAFIA, said Wednesday that Iran intended to implement a plan in the near future to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees.

Kazemi said that the plan would be discussed in a trilateral meeting between Iran, Afghanistan and the UNHRC to be held in Tehran in the near future.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran has been slow in recent years in the face of poor security and economic conditions in Afghanistan, which Tehran blames on the US-led occupation of the country since 2001.