Afghan envoy says refugees in Iran will get ID’s, electronic passports

Afghanistan’s ambassador to Iran, Ghafour Lewal, said Saturday that Afghan refugees in Iran would be legalized. 

Lewal, who met with Iranian officials said the refugees would be issued ID cards and electronic passports by Afghan officials. 

“A team from Afghanistan has traveled to Iran to work on the identity of refugees, issue ID cards for them and also electronic passports.” 

According to Iran’s national news agency IRNA, Lewal said a comprehensive strategy document had also been signed between the two countries which related to economic, trade and investment relations. 

Iran is hosting about three million Afghan refugees – both documented and undocumented – and although Afghanistan and Iran have close trade ties, the refugee issue has raised concerns in the past. 

In May, residents in the Gulran district in Herat province, which borders Iran, said Iranian officials had tortured and thrown more than 50 Afghan immigrants into a river so as to stop them from entering the country illegally. 

Residents said the group of immigrants had crossed into Iran in search of work before being captured by Iranian border guards and later pushed into the Harirud river shared by both Afghanistan and Iran. 

A large number of refugees in Iran are second or third generation Afghans living in the country.

According to the UNHCR, approximately 97 percent of the refugees live in urban and semi-urban areas, while the remaining three percent live in 20 refugee settlements which are managed by UNHCR’s main government counterpart, the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants’ Affairs (BAFIA) of the Ministry of Interior.

In recent years, however, the government of Iran has gradually been introducing policies conducive to solutions for refugees and the attainment of rights for the Afghan population living in Iran, enhancing access to education, health, and livelihood services to refugees with minimal financial aid from the international community.