Kabul Urges Iran to Provide Visa Facilities for Afghans


Kabul Urges Iran to Provide Visa Facilities for Afghans

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Afghanistan’s Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi called on Iran to facilitate the issuance of visa for Afghan nationals in a bid to prevent illegal immigration, a statement by the ministry said.

In a meeting with Iranian officials held on the sidelines of RECCA (Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan), Balkhi asked for Iran’s cooperation on the resolution of undocumented Afghan immigrants’ problems in Iran.

According to the statement, the Afghan minister also requested Iran to provide facilities for the issuance of visa for Afghan nationals trying to visit Iran.

It will prevent the illegal entrance of Afghans to neighboring Iran, the statement added.

According to Tasnim dispatches, the Iranian delegation promised during the meeting to cooperate with Afghanistan in resolving the problems of immigrants as well as other challenges.

Back in May, Iranian and Afghan officials in a meeting in Tehran discussed ways to facilitate and speed up the return of Afghan refugees to their home country after years of residing in Iran.

“Iran and Afghanistan are determined to strengthen ties and promote cooperation, and we try to create good conditions for the return of Afghan refugees to their motherland,” Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said at the time after a meeting with Balkhi.

Iran has hosted Afghan refugees since late 1970s following the occupation of their country by the Soviet Union troops. Although many of those refugees have returned to their country voluntarily, there are still hundreds of thousands of documented and undocumented Afghans in Iran.

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