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Iran walls off part of border with Afghanistan
Iran shares a more than 900 km border with Afghanistan, and hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world.
Iran’s military has built a wall along more than 10 kilometers of its eastern border with Afghanistan, the main entry point for immigrants, Iranian media reported Monday.
“More than 10 kilometers of walls have been built on the border and another 50 kilometers is ready to be walled off,” ISNA news agency said, citing General Nozar Nemati, deputy commander of army ground forces, AFP reported.
Iran shares a more than 900 km border with Afghanistan, and hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world.
The flow of Afghan immigrants has increased since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan took over in August 2021 after US forces withdrew.
Tehran has not given official figures for the number of Afghan immigrants, but member of parliament Abolfazl Torabi has estimated their number at “between six and seven million”.
The authorities have recently increased pressure on “illegal” refugees, regularly announcing expulsions through the eastern border.
“By blocking the border, we want to control the country’s entries and exits” and “better increase the security of border areas”, Nemati said.
In September, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said Iran would employ other methods including barbed wire and water-filled ditches in addition to the wall to block the border.
On September 13, the spokesman for the parliamentary National Security Committee, Ebrahim Rezaei, said police plan to “expel more than two million illegal citizens in the near future”.
According to the official IRNA news agency, Afghans represent “more than 90 percent of foreign nationals” in Iran, and “most of them enter the country without identity papers”.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his government plans to “repatriate illegal nationals to their country in a respectful manner”.
In the year starting in March 2023 Iran hosted more than 2.7 million documented Afghan refugees, according to the Statistics Centre.
That figure represents 97 per cent of legal migrants in the country.
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Afghanistan expresses condolences over deadly gas facility blast in Qatar
At least thirteen people were killed and 66 people injured after an explosion at Qatar’s core LNG processing site of Ras Laffan on Sunday, Energy Minister Saad al-Kaab said on Monday.
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Qatar embassy holds roundtable on Afghanistan’s relations with international community
The Embassy of the State of Qatar in Kabul held a roundtable discussion on Afghanistan’s relations with the international community, bringing together representatives from the United Nations and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The meeting was attended by Georgette Gagnon, Acting Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Political Affairs, as well as Scott Smith, Head of UNAMA’s Political Affairs Division.
The Afghan side was represented by Zakir Jalaly, Head of the Second Political Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Abdul Hai Qanit, Director of the Strategic Studies Center at the ministry.
According to a statement issued by the Qatari Embassy, discussions focused on the future of Afghanistan’s relations with the international community and explored ways to support and strengthen those ties.
The roundtable reflects ongoing diplomatic efforts to encourage dialogue and engagement on Afghanistan’s international relations amid evolving regional and global dynamics.
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Belgium issues visas to IEA delegation for EU meeting
Belgium said on Monday it had issued five visas to an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) delegation to attend an EU meeting on migration in Brussels, in what would be the first time the EU has hosted the IEA since it returned to power in Afghanistan five years ago.
The visas are restricted in both geographical scope and duration, allowing travel only to Belgium and for a single day, a Belgian foreign ministry spokesperson said, adding that the date of the visit would not be disclosed for security reasons.
Two European officials said the delegation had been granted one-day visas valid only on Tuesday, June 23, Reuters reported.
The Commission last month invited IEA officials to Brussels to discuss deportations of Afghan migrants.
The Commission said the meeting is technical and does not constitute recognition of IEA rule.
“Member States are looking into ways to return persons who have committed serious crimes and who are possibly a security threat. So this is the initiative that the Commission is now following up on,” Commission spokesman Markus Lammert told the EU’s daily press briefing on Monday.
According to a letter seen by Reuters and addressed to Abdul Qaher Balkhi, an Afghan foreign ministry spokesman, it will focus on “the return and readmission of Afghan nationals without a right to stay in the European Union”.
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