December 12, 2014
A fghanistan is sending a delegation to Iran asking it to extend temporary visas allowing 760,000 Afghan refugees who have no documents and risk deportation to stay on for at least another year, an Afghan government spokesman said last Wednesday.
There are almost 1 million registered Afghan refugees in Iran, according to the United Nations, most of whom arrived before 2001 when the Taliban were toppled. The Afghan government says there are another 760,000 unregistered Afghans who arrived in Iran after that.
Those who arrived after 2001 are required to have their permits assessed on an individual basis, making it harder for them to obtain the paperwork needed to be officially registered, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.
“The delegation will request the Iranian government to extend the visas for at least one more year,” said the Afghan chief executive’s deputy spokesman, Javid Faisal.
In June, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said temporary visas were extended to unregistered Afghan refugees for six months until mid-December, meaning they could soon be kicked out of Iran.
Afghanistan has been the United Nations’ largest repatriation operation, but fewer refugees are agreeing to return now because of increasing violence and deteriorating economic conditions in Afghanistan and because they have settled into what they see as better lives in Iran. But many Iranians see them as taking jobs away from Iranians and support for deportation is strong.
The Iranian attitude to poor Afghans in Iran is much like the American attitude to poor Central Americans in the United States.
Since 2002, the UN refugee agency has helped more than 900,000 Afghans return home from Iran, but the number has dropped off and next year just 20,000 people are expected to be voluntarily repatriated.
