RASHT, Gilan Province A police official has warned that the illegal foreign nationals, mostly Afghans, are creating various problems, including unemployment.

Hojjatoleslam Mohammad-Ali Rahmani was on Saturday quoted as saying in northern Iran that the Afghans are behind the drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking, IRNA reported.

The official said that the illegal Afghan aliens should be deported to provide the youths an opportunity to find job as the unemployment rate stands around 16 percent, according to official reports.

Earlier this month, the Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari ordered police to start rounding up and deporting illegal foreign migrants.

The order addressed to Iran's police chief said employers found hiring illegal residents should be subject to "whatever legal action necessary", and for human traffickers to be identified and arrested.

Iran is home to the world's largest refugee population, most of them from war-torn neighboring Afghanistan.

But the massive influx into Iran is becoming increasingly unwelcome in an economy straining under high unemployment and low investment, while a third year of punishing drought also threatens the country.

A joint program with the UN High Commissioner of Refugees has repatriated tens of thousands of Afghans amid repeated calls from Parliament that they are taking badly needed jobs away from Iranian nationals.