Speaking in his meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in Tehran on Tuesday, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the crisis of influx of Afghan refugees to neighboring borders is increasing tremendously.
He termed the number of international contributions for supporting Afghan refugees in the country ‘very negligible’ and added that there is no capacity for Iran to render excessive humanitarian services to new asylum seekers.
During the meeting, the Iranian foreign minister briefed the visiting UN High Commissioner for Refugees on the measures taken by INHCR especially in the field related to Afghan refugees.
While expressing his thanks to the humanitarian contributions of UNHCR regarding Afghan refugees in Iran, Amir-Abdollahian stated that the contributions presented in supporting Afghan refugees in Iran are 'very negligible'.
More than 520,000 foreign students are studying in Iran who receive free-of-charge education services in a way that all these foreign students in the country have been vaccinated against COVID-19 disease equally with Iranian ones, he said and reiterated that the international community must pay serious attention to the living situation of Afghan people in the country.
He went on to say that European countries must pay their due share in this field, he stressed.
Emphasizing the need to promote the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, Amir-Abdollahian said, “Unfortunately, we are witnessing the displacement of a great number of Afghan people inside this country and also their influx to neighboring countries.”
Filippo Grandi, for his part, appreciated widespread humanitarian measures rendered by the Islamic Republic of Iran to new Afghan refugees.
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