TEHRAN -- An Iranian official has denied remarks attributed to a UN representative that Afghan asylum-seekers expelled from Pakistan would be housed in Iran.
“After contacting Yumiko Takashima Ishikawa, the UN refugee agency envoy for Iran, she denied the news, highlighting the UN high commissioner for refugees’ abidance by policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying cooperation with the Iranian government is a priority,” said Ashkan Pirzadeh, a deputy of Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian president’s special representative for Afghan affairs.
The denial came after the UN official was quoted as saying that the world body would try to settle Afghan refugees in Iran.
Pakistan has started the mass deportation of undocumented Afghan refugees, prompting refugee influxes to the border areas.
Iran is already hosting millions of Afghan refugees, many of whom have been residing in the country for more than four decades. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 sparked a massive influx of Afghans into Iran amid lax border security.
Strong resentment is growing, particularly among ordinary Iranians, to the unprecedentedly high number of Afghans in Iran, especially in capital Tehran, mainly due to security, economic and social concerns.