February 18, 2022
Despite pledging that Iranian expatriates can return to Iran for visits unmolested, security officials at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport have been pulling aside expatriates flying in from Europe and demanding financial and personal information from them, the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) charged January 22.
It said this action was taken at least on January 5, 7 and 15.
It said the returning expatriates “were taken to interrogation rooms at the airport and ordered to provide written information including their country of residence, income, and nationality on a ‘personal declaration’ form.”
The new procedure was instituted just a few weeks after Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian pledged that “Iranian expatriates can travel to Iran without worrying” about being harassed by the authorities.