Iran allocates $1bn for border security

Iran has allocated $1 billion for the strengthening of its borders against drug trafficking and illegal entry of foreign nationals, the interior minister says.

“Drug trafficking, smuggling and the illegal entry of foreign nationals have caused problems in our borders,” Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying on Thursday.

Iran lies on a transit corridor between opium-producing Afghanistan and drug dealers in Europe.

To counter drug trafficking, the Iranian government has deployed thousands of security personnel along its eastern borders and has built over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of embankments, canals, trenches, and cement walls.

Najjar added that the government allocated more than $1 billion to “help strengthen the 8,000 kilometers in common border Iran has with its neighbors.”

According to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region has become one of the world’s largest free-trade zones for anything illicit, from drugs and weapons to illegal immigration.