Official Asks Int’l Community to Help Iran with Afghan Refugees’ Rehabilitation

Iranian Deputy Interior Minister for Security and Law Enforcement Affairs Ali Abdollahi on Wednesday called on the international community to support Iran’s efforts to repatriate and rehabilitate Afghan refugees in their country.

Speaking at a meeting with New Swedish Envoy to Iran Peter Tajler, Abdollahi said that Iran has provided Afghan refugees with much service and expects the international community to cooperate with Iran in facilitating refugees’ affairs.

He pointed to the measures adopted by the Contact Group on Afghanistan – which include Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Australia, German, Japan – and its meetings in Tehran and Geneva, and said that the group has discussed assisting voluntarily repatriation of Afghan refugees or their rehabilitation in countries which are ready to host them.

Abdollahi reminded Iran’s campaign against drug-trafficking along Eastern borders with Afghanistan, which is the world’s number one opium and drug producer, and said that “Iran expects the international community to contribute its share” in anti-narcotics efforts in a proper manner.

Iran has been a generous host for more than 2 million Afghan refugees for two decades, with little help from the international community.

Tehran has called on the international community to strengthen support for Iran for hosting the Afghan refugees and provide repatriation support for the refugees.

Voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran has slowed in recent years in the face of poor security and economic conditions in Afghanistan, which Tehran blames on the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Earlier this year, the UNHCR Representative in Iran Bernard Doyle lauded the country for its efforts and effective measures in supporting the Afghan refugees residing in Iran, and underlined that Tehran has shown a kind and humanitarian behavior towards the Afghan nationals.

“Iran has well fulfilled its humanitarian duties in this regard,” Doyle said in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in June.