Afghan Refugees Say War Dissuade Them From Returning
August 22, 2000 - 0:0
SEMNAN A number of Afghan refugees stationed in this central province are complaining of a continuing war and insecurity in their hometown, saying it is dissuading them from returning.
But all of them assert that in case a halt is ground to the war, they would return.
"We have nothing in Afghanistan and the continuity of war has made us reluctant to return there," says Afghan Mohammad Hossein Shojaei, who is a homebuilder in Semnan.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has the authority to expel us and in that case we would leave." Another Afghan, identified only as Zaer said, "I pray to the Almighty God to help the war end so that I can return there." Other Afghans also express similar views.
That is while the officials in charge of provincial Bureau for Foreign Immigrants' and Aliens' Affairs in Semnan are complaining about the slow pace of registration of those Afghans seeking support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR puts the total number of Afghans in Iran at 1.4 million.
The Iranian authorities say there are 700,000 Afghans illegally present in the country.
More than 60,000 Afghans have already gone back since the UNHCR started a voluntary repatriation program on April 8.
Under an agreement signed in February between the UNHCR and Iran, some 100,000 refugees are to return to Afghanistan in the space of six months.
It gave refugees without papers an option of seeking asylum within six months or apply for repatriation.
Afghans are usually blamed for their contribution to a runaway joblessness among the youths.
Labor Minister Hossein Kamali said in May that about two million refugees, most of them Afghans, were working illegally in Iran.
"Those people must leave our country and give our young people the opportunity to find job," he said.
Earlier also a majority of 154 Majlis deputies in an open letter to President Mohammad Khatami called for repatriation of Afghan refugees to their homeland.
In the letter they noted that increasing number of Afghan refugees and their long presence here has given rise to "numerous problems" for Iranian citizens.
"Despite the problems Iran faced including the (1980-1988) imposed war, it has always welcomed them ... and the time has come for them to return to their own state," their letter read in part.
(IRNA)
But all of them assert that in case a halt is ground to the war, they would return.
"We have nothing in Afghanistan and the continuity of war has made us reluctant to return there," says Afghan Mohammad Hossein Shojaei, who is a homebuilder in Semnan.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has the authority to expel us and in that case we would leave." Another Afghan, identified only as Zaer said, "I pray to the Almighty God to help the war end so that I can return there." Other Afghans also express similar views.
That is while the officials in charge of provincial Bureau for Foreign Immigrants' and Aliens' Affairs in Semnan are complaining about the slow pace of registration of those Afghans seeking support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR puts the total number of Afghans in Iran at 1.4 million.
The Iranian authorities say there are 700,000 Afghans illegally present in the country.
More than 60,000 Afghans have already gone back since the UNHCR started a voluntary repatriation program on April 8.
Under an agreement signed in February between the UNHCR and Iran, some 100,000 refugees are to return to Afghanistan in the space of six months.
It gave refugees without papers an option of seeking asylum within six months or apply for repatriation.
Afghans are usually blamed for their contribution to a runaway joblessness among the youths.
Labor Minister Hossein Kamali said in May that about two million refugees, most of them Afghans, were working illegally in Iran.
"Those people must leave our country and give our young people the opportunity to find job," he said.
Earlier also a majority of 154 Majlis deputies in an open letter to President Mohammad Khatami called for repatriation of Afghan refugees to their homeland.
In the letter they noted that increasing number of Afghan refugees and their long presence here has given rise to "numerous problems" for Iranian citizens.
"Despite the problems Iran faced including the (1980-1988) imposed war, it has always welcomed them ... and the time has come for them to return to their own state," their letter read in part.
(IRNA)