RASC News Agency: Ehsan Heydari, the Director of Tehran’s Department of Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Affairs, has announced that since the beginning of the new Solar Hijri year, the identification, apprehension, and expulsion of Afghanistani refugees in Tehran have tripled compared to the previous year.
Speaking on Wednesday, April 17th, the official from Tehran’s Migration Department confirmed to an Iranian media outlet that during the Nowruz of 1403, over eight thousand illegal Afghanistani refugees were apprehended from Tehran parks and transferred to deportation centers for repatriation to their homeland. Referring to the expedited process of rounding up illegal refugees in the country, Ehsan Heydari stated that his department, under his leadership, will locate and detain the last remaining illegal Afghanistani refugee in Tehran.
Additionally, the head of the Tehran Province Department of Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Affairs noted that during Nowruz 1402, his department detained over seven thousand Afghanistani migrants in recreational parks and repatriated them to Afghanistan. The Iranian government had previously declared the escalation of the expulsion of illegal Afghanistani refugees from the country, forcibly deporting dozens of refugees daily.
It is worth mentioning that Iran has served as a sanctuary for Afghanistani refugees for nearly half a century, amidst the fifty-year turmoil in their homeland, where they have continuously moved back and forth due to security concerns, poverty, and unemployment. In the recent upheaval in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s ascendancy has driven thousands of Afghanistanis to inevitably seek refuge in Iran, fearing retaliation and facing poverty.
