KABUL, May 10: Afghanistan’s parliament voted on Thursday to sack the minister for refugees amid an uproar over Iran’s forced return of thousands of illegal refugees, while the fate of the foreign minister is in the balance.

Refugees Affairs Minister Akbar Akbar lost a no-confidence vote by a large majority, while the vote for Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta was hanging on a single spoilt ballot.

Parliament said it would decide how to handle Spanta's vote when it reconvened on Saturday.Mr Akbar has effectively lost his job but President Hamid Karzai could decide to keep him on as acting minister until his replacement is approved by parliament, said MP Shukria Barakzai.

Parliamentarians accused him of not doing enough to accommodate the thousands of refugees who have flooded into western Afghanistan after Iran said it wanted one million illegal Afghans out of its country by March 2008. The UNHCR says more than 52,000 were forced out between April 21 and May 8.—AFP