Iranian government has no plan to repatriate afghans forcefully. This good news on the part of afghan refugees residing in Iran was propagated this past week in Iranian Student’s Publication ISNA. According to the report Iranian Interior Ministry Chief on Afghan National and Refugees Muhammad Taqi Qayimi said, “At the moment we don’t have a working plan of forcefully repatriating illegal afghan nationals but as per the laws of the country we will deal with the afghan nationals who reside inside the borders of Iran. And on average about 800-1000 afghan refugees are repatriated everyday.”

The same ministry also confirm that according to the current census of afghan nationals residing legally in iran, over nin hundred thousand registerd afghans still live or work in Iran.

Iran has been traditionally a non friendly country to afghan refugees and has been notorious in its dealings with the refugees. For the last seven years it has increased pressure on Afghan refugees, UN agencies and Afghan government to help repatriate afghans sooner than later.

This is a very big surprise to all stake holders in the affairs of afghan refugees that Iran has no plan on hand for the repatriation of afghan refugees.

It must be kept in mind that the last 30 years of war in Afghanistan left a quarter of 30 million of afghan population migrants to various countries with Pakistan the largest recepient of them with 3.5 million and Iran the second largest with 1.5 million. Germany is the largest afghan refugees recepient European country with over 80,000 afghans. In addition, afghans now reside in nearly over 50 countries ranging from Canada to US, to UK, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, India, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and many other countries.