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| May 22, 2005 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1426 |
Iran bans Afghan DPs’ entry
TEHRAN, May 21: Iran banned Afghans from residing in the country’s eastern border provinces for unspecified security reasons, a senior Interior Ministry official announced on Saturday. Ahmad Hosseini, head of the ministry’s refugees office, who did not elaborate on the reason behind the ban, said the decision included the border provinces of Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and that Afghans living in the area had to return to Afghanistan as soon as possible.
There are about a million Afghan refugees living in Iran, Tehran expects half of them to leave the country before the end of this year. More than 1.3 million refugees have left Iran through a United Nations repatriation programme in the last three years.—APP/AP
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