Iran: Official says Afghan refugees still returning home

Unclassified

Document ID: IAP20011003000061

Version Number: 01

Region: Near East/South Asia, The Americas

Sub-Region: South Asia, North America

Country: Iran, Afghanistan, United States

Topic: INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL, MIGRATION

Source-Date: 10/03/2001

Iran: Official says Afghan refugees still returning home

 IAP20011003000061 Tehran Iranian Students News Agency WWW-Text in Persian 1208 GMT 3 Oct 01 

[FBIS Translated Text]

   Tehran, 3 October: Despite America's threat to attack Afghanistan, Afghans are continuing to return to their country.

   Saying this in an interview with ISNA, the head of the Afghan refugees' departure centre at the Do-Gharun border crossing added: While, in the first week of Shahrivar [month beginning 23 August], about 4,200 Afghan refugees left Iran in a self-motivated way, in the first week of Mehr [month beginning 23 September], about 3,000 Afghan nationals left Iran.

   He stressed: The number of Afghan refugees that are leaving Iran has fallen by less than 3 per cent.

   The person in charge of foreign nationals at the Taybad Governorate added: I have the impression that there has been no perceptible change in the trend of the departure of Afghans from Iran.

   Moshaffeq said: When I ask these families why they are returning to their country despite the possibility of war, bearing in mind that they may be displaced again, they say that their motivation is their family.

   He added: These refugees come to Taybad from various towns in the country with the intention of returning to Afghanistan via the Do-Gharun crossing.

   The person in charge of foreign nationals at the Taybad Governorate said the following about the crossing of Iranian nationals: At the moment, in view of the situation in that country, no Iranian is allowed to go to there and visiting Afghanistan is out of the question.

   He added: The small number of Iranian nationals still remaining in Afghanistan are the only people who are still entering Iran and they can continue to do so via this customs post.

   Moshaffeq referred to the existence of 10 million mines inside Afghanistan and said: A short course familiarizing people with mines and other explosive devices is available at this departure centre for Afghan refugees who intend to return to their country, so that, if they come across any such things, they know how to get past them.

   Regarding the assistance provided to the Afghan refugees [who return home from Iran] by the UN High Commissioner, he said: There was a limited amount of assistance provided by the UN High Commissioner to the Afghan refugees before, but, unfortunately, there has been no sign of it for quite some time now.

   Moshaffeq said that the reason why the UN assistance to the Afghan refugees had stopped was the UN's shortage of funds.

      end

     [Description of Source: Tehran Iranian Students News Agency WWW-Text in Persian -- ]

THIS REPORT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

  Unclassified