Iran deported 200,000 illegal Afghan immigrants: minister

TEHRAN: Undocumented Afghan immigrants should be expelled from Iran, citing Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi an Iranian news agency reported.

Speaking to reporters Vahidi emphasized the necessity of organizing the status and activities of Afghan immigrants in Iran.

The minister said Iran has so far deported 200,000 undocumented Afghan citizens, with a number of them having again returned to the country illegally.

Iranian Minister of Interior Affairs clarified that addressing illegal immigrants’ issue doesn’t mean being anti-Afghan.

Deploring the Taliban caretaker government for failing to pay enough attention to the issue of illegal immigration into Iran, the interior minister said, “The illegal immigrants must leave the country. It is necessary to develop a stronger mechanism to act against the immigrants who return to Iran after being extradited to their country.”

In June 2022, Iran’s deputy interior minister for security and law enforcement estimated that there were around 4.5 million documented and illegal Afghans in Iran.

The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021 triggered a huge influx of Afghans, many of whom flocked to Iran, with which Afghanistan has 921 km of common land border.