Iran: Only 15% of Afghan Refugees Deported
Tawazon – Despite growing concerns over the forced deportation of Afghans from Iran, a senior Iranian official says that just a fraction of Afghan refugees have been deported over the past few weeks.
According to Iranian media, Malek Hosseini,head of employment affairs at Iran’s Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, stated that less than 700,000 Afghan refugees have left Iran as part of a program to deport the refugees that began in late June.
“Official figures show that nearly five million Afghan refugees remain in Iran, and most of them are working in unofficial labor market,” Hosseini said, as quoted by Press TV.
He added that fewer than 10% of Afghan refugees, around 434,000 people, have legal documents to live and work in Iran. According to Hosseini, more than half of the Afghans who are legally working in Iran are employed in the construction sector, bout 19% work in manufacturing plants, and more than 11% in agricultural projects. He noted that the majority of undocumented Afghan refugees, nearly three million people, work in family or group businesses, forming a significant part of Iran’s informal labor market
These remarks come amid reports that some Afghan nationals have been arrested in Iran in recent weeks on suspicion of collaborating in sabotage operations carried out by the Israeli regime. This has raised fears of collective punishment and mass deportations.
However, economic analysts warn that any broad deportation of Afghan workers could have serious consequences for Iran’s labor market, where many sectors rely on Afghan labor.
