Afghanistan has an unemployment rate of close to 50%. Add war, draught, lack of basic services such as healthcare and education and one can see the pressure on the population to emigrate. Iran has a GDP that is 11 times higher than Afghanistan’s and is close by. To complete the picture, many Afghans understand and speak Farsi (Dari is close to Farsi). Iran is a natural magnet for Afghans. It is not therefore surprising to see that millions of Afghans have immigrated to Iran. In addition, some families that stayed in Afghanistan have established a security net by sending out one family member to work in Iran, and numerous families are completely dependent on remittances from family members working in the neighbouring countries.
As is the case with many illegal aliens or refugees elsewhere in the world, Afghan immigrants / refugees were and are willing to work for much lower wages than the natives. This has greatly benefited industries such as farming and construction. Service industry has also been a beneficiary of cheap Afghan labour as well. They build roads, buildings, work as janitors etc. Yet again as is the case with the immigrant population elsewhere, few seem to speak of the benefits that these people bring to the country.
Iran is suffering from double digit inflation and unemployment. Iranians see the Afghans as competitors for jobs and more importantly as a barrier to higher wages for themselves. But the fact is that few Iranians are willing to work as hard as Afghans. And it is highly improbable that they will work for similar wages. So they see these immigrants as a threat to their living standard.
Afghanistan is one of the world’s biggest opium producers. Much of its products are smuggled to Europe and elsewhere through neighbouring countries, where it is also distributed. This has created a huge drug problem in Iran. Security forces regularly clash with well-armed Afghan smugglers, resulting in deaths of thousands of Iranian security personnel. Another problem is the general insecurity along the borders. For a while some Afghan criminal elements were raiding Iranian villages in the border area, kidnapping people for ransom. Iranian government had to station troops around these areas to protect the population.
All these problems have changed the general sentiment towards the refugees and immigrants. Iranians in general see the Afghans as a burden and think it is about time for them to return to Afghanistan.
My brother’s keeper
“In Iran today, there is both subtle and overt discrimination, and at times harassment. Opportunities for higher education were closed in 2003. Little or no compensation is
paid when workers in the construction sector are killed or disabled in accidents. Informed reports have suggested increased use of drugs to sustain long and hard working days. Iranian women who marry Afghan men lose their Iranian citizenship. If involuntary returns are instituted, such families risk being sent to Afghanistan. Estimates of the number of persons who may be affected vary markedly, but a reasonable figure suggests 30,000.
….By mid-2003, all Afghans residing in Iran were asked to re-register with the authorities. Those with refugee documents were obliged to hand in their refugee cards and received in return only temporary residence permits, with no time for staying or leaving specified. The number of registered Afghans at that time totalled 2.3 million. Of these, UNHCR considers 1.1 million to be refugees or otherwise ‘of concern’ to its mandate” [2]. This left over 1 million “registered” Afghans without any protection from deportation. Add the unregistered Afghan immigrants and one gets close to two million or more people who have no legal status in the country (illegal aliens).
When confronted with the allegation of maltreatment of Afghan refugees in Iran, Iranian government claims that it has born a very large burden for a long-time without much international assistance. It claims that it has done more than its share for the country and it can no longer curry this burden alone.
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