Tehran, Kabul Discuss Transfer of 5,000 Afghan Prisoners
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Minister of Justice Seyed Alireza Avayi and his Afghan counterpart, Abdul Baseer Anwar, exchanged views about a range of issues, including the transfer of about 5,000 Afghan nationals held in Iranian prisons.
In the meeting, held in Tehran on Saturday, Avayi pointed to an agreement between Iran and Afghanistan on the transfer of prisoners and said there is “good” cooperation between the two sides, adding that about 5,000 afghan nationals are currently in jail in Iran.
This is while 22 Iranians are held in Afghanistan’s prisons, he said, adding that most of Afghan prisoners have been jailed in Iran on charges related to smuggling of illicit drugs.
The Iranian minister went on to say that around 1,000 Afghan citizens have been imprisoned in the provinces of Kerman, Isfahan, Markazi, Fars, Khorasan Razavi and Sistan and Balouchestan, calling for efforts to facilitate the transfer of the Afghan nationals to their homeland.
Heading a high-ranking delegation, Anwar arrived in Iran on Saturday morning to hold talks with senior officials of the country and sign a memorandum of understanding.
Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.
Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past decades.
The country has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.
