Sharq Newspaper: Iran has returned thousands of Afghan refugees

The Sharq newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Iranian government is taking steps daily to return Afghan refugees who have fled fear of the Taliban, and that in the border area near Helmand alone, it has returned "three thousand" Afghan soldiers, "some of whom came with their wives and husbands."

The report states that the return of these soldiers took place after an agreement between Iran and the Taliban, and that some temporary camps in border areas have also been closed.

Iran's Interior Ministry had previously announced that it had predicted two months before the fall of Kabul that it would face a new wave of Afghan refugees and had begun establishing camps to receive them.

However, a report in the Sharq newspaper quoted local sources as saying, "There is no longer a camp. All [refugees] have been sent to Afghanistan."

A reporter for Sharq newspaper, who visited several border areas, wrote that he went to the "Mullah Sharif checkpoint and the Helmand Citizens' Administration" and "Chahar Borujerd and Zahak" to find Afghan refugees, but in the end, a border regiment commander in Zahak told him: "All Afghans who had entered Iran in recent days have been turned away from the border."

Another part of the report emphasizes that, contrary to the Red Crescent's propaganda about setting up numerous camps, it has seen "no tents, no camps, no camps, and no temporary accommodation" in these areas.

According to the United Nations, at least 360,000 more people have been displaced since the beginning of this year due to the intensification of the war in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Ministry of Refugees announced on June 20 this year that about 6.5 million Afghans are living in 70 countries around the world as refugees or asylum seekers.

According to the latest statistics from the Afghan Ministry of Refugees in February of last year, two and a half million Afghan citizens are living in Iran, and it is predicted that the wave of migration of Afghan citizens from unofficial sources will increase due to the recent conditions in the country.

Source: Radio Farda