Nearly 6,000 Afghans currently languish in Iranian jails

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday about 6,000 Afghans were currently being held in the country’s prisons.

ISNA news agency quoted Alireza Mahmoodi, Consular Director General of Iran's Foreign Ministry, as writing on X that currently about 6,000 Afghan nationals were languishing in Iran’s jails, but he said nothing about their crimes.

However, according to reports, most Afghans who enter Iran illegally are imprisoned by the Iranian government and some have been accused of drug trafficking and other crimes.

The Afghan Prisons Affairs Regulatory Authority said that last year, 1,230 Afghan prisoners were extradited from Iran to Afghanistan and kept in the country's prisons.

The authority, without providing details, said eight other countries had promised to hand over Afghan prisoners to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

According to UNHCR, before the regime change in August 2021, about 3.4 million Afghan refugees lived in Iran, including nearly two million illegal immigrants.

The UN refugee agency said hundreds of thousands of Afghans went to Iran after the regime change in Afghanistan.

However, every day hundreds of Afghan refugees return to the country from Iran.

According to Pajhwok reports, last year 527,000 Afghan refugees returned to Afghanistan either voluntarily or forcibly.

hz/ma