SHAHR-E KORD Iran could carve out some 1.8 million jobs for its swarming unemployed population once foreign residents in the country leave or repatriated for their ancestral lands, a deputy head in the Labor Ministry Qoli Sheikhi said here Thursday.

He said the repatriation of illegal aliens had been envisaged in the country's Third Development Plan (2000-2001), adding those repatriation operations were already underway.

Sheikhi hoped the repatriation to be completed by the end of the comprehensive plan.

"With the repatriation of foreign nationals, a major part of the existing unemployment problem for unskilled workers will be solved," he said.

Sheikhi said Afghans constituted the high number of foreign residents in Iran. The country homes the largest number of world refugee population with other nationals from Iraq, India and Pakistan.

The great number of Afghans living in Iran is commonly cited as one of the reasons contributing to the high rate of unemployment and drug abuse in the country.

Some 1.4 million Afghans still remain in Iran, half of them illegal residents, according to official government reports.

Iran and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reached an agreement last April for the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees.

(IRNA)