TEHRAN: Iran has launched an operation to evict illegal Afghan nationals living in the country for many years.
The interior ministry of Iran confirmed that so far over 200,000 undocumented Afghan nationals have been sent back to their country.
But a senior officer in the same ministry added that most of the Afghans evicted from Iran had come back again using illegal means.
Like Pakistan, Iran has also hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the 1970s. But apartment from the refugees Afghans have also continued reaching in Iran and Pakistan without documents and lived in these countries for years.
Thousands of people fled Afghanistan when the US forces left the country in 2021. Some of them succeeded in reaching Europe but most of them ended up in Iran and Pakistan.
Pakistan has also decided to repatriate all the illegal Afghans and given them the November 1 deadline to leave voluntarily after which they would be deported.
Pakistan has said that most of the crime reported in recent years especially suicide attacks in Khyber Pakthunkhwa were carried out by Afghan nationals.
The government has designated specific centers in Karachi, Quetta, Chaman, Nowshera, Chamkani and Rawalpindi where all the illegal Afghans would be kept after November 1 before their deportation.
While there are an estimated 1.5 illegal Afghans, so far less than 100,000 have gone back to their country after the government asked them to leave Pakistan.
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