Iran sets June 5 deadline for 4m illegal Afghans to leave

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Head of Iran’s Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrant Affairs says more than four million Afghan refugees in Iran are considered illegal after the invalidation of census forms and they have until June 5 to leave the country.

ISNA reported Iran’s BAFIA Director Naderyar Ahmadi as saying many Afghans had entered the country without identity documents and most of them constituted refugees and currently the number of Afghan citizens reaches 6.1 million in Iran.

He said the number of illegal Afghans was 2.1 million last year and explained: “About two million people whose census forms were valid until March 20 were added to 1404 solar year invalid census forms, bringing the number of unauthorized citizens in Iran to 4.1 million”.

He said the census forms of all Afghan citizens, with the exception of six groups who could stay in Iran by obtaining temporary cards, have been invalidated, and all illegal Afghan citizens have until June 5 to leave the country.

For students who have passports, their passports have been renewed and they have no problem continuing their studies, Ahmadi added.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has said nothing about this as yet.

hz/ma