Iran’s interior ministry says it has approved residency permits for more than one million Afghan refugees currently in the country.
Sadiq Rezadoost, Iran’s Director General of Foreign Nationals and Immigrant Affairs of the Ministry of Interior, said that all nationals who came to Iran after the political developments in Afghanistan last year, or who were given papers in the past years, should not worry because their papers will be extended.
“The residence permits of more than one million Afghan citizens have been extended; Afghan citizens should not worry, because their papers will be extended after this date and the conditions for their return to Afghanistan have not yet been provided,” said Rezadoost.
“A special residency card is also issued for those who are working in this country,” he added.
Meanwhile, the officials of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) say there are currently more than three million Afghan refugees in Iran, and that only one million of them have residency documents.
“In Iran, we have approximately three million refugees, of which two million still do not have residency documents,” said Abdulmutallab Haqqani, the spokesman of MoRR.
“The ministry of refugees has tried to get Iran to give them a residence permit so that they obtain all the rights for immigrants according to international laws,” he said.
However, experts say that Afghan refugees living in neighboring countries are facing many problems and challenges.
Recently, a quadrilateral meeting between the representatives of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was held in Iran in a bid to solve the problems of refugees.—Ariana news
