TEHRAN - In a quad-lateral meeting attended by his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts and representative of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva…, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli called on the international community to fulfill its obligation regarding asylum seeker and refugees.

“Refugees’ issue must go under pathology, the root cause of problems must be reviewed and then based on gathered data a committee must be formed to draft the countries’ commitments and missions for a specific time to fulfill them,” Rahmani Fazli opined.

“Role, views and opinions of regional nations should be regarded, because, without any accurate assessment from the region’s situation, a new flow of immigrates and refugees towards other countries will be witnessed,” the minister mentioned.

Iran has been a generous host for millions of Afghan refugees for about four 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 help provide facilities for repatriation of 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 U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2001.

The office of the UNHCR was established by the UN General Assembly in 1950.

According to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, the agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees.

UNHCR first opened an office in Iran in 1984 and expanded its presence with the massive influx of Iraqi refugees following the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the start of Afghans' mass return movement to Afghanistan in 1992.

Today UNHCR has its central representative office in Tehran, plus three sub-offices in Mashhad, Kerman, and Ahwaz.

MJ/PA