Hossein Zolfaghari made the remarks in a meeting with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Saturday afternoon.
Zolfaghari expressed Iran’s readiness to exchange information with UN officials to solve refugees' problems, adding Iran has a lot of experience in dealing with immigrants and refugees.
He said that about 700,000 Afghans who have been living in Iran return to their country voluntarily or due to depreciation of Iranian national currency the rial, adding that 800,000 are still in Iran illegally.
Meanwhile, he pointed out that according to official statistics about 103,000 Afghan children are studying in schools across Iran after the Leader of the Islamic Republic issued an order in that regard.
Zolfaghari also noted that as long as conflicts continue in Afghanistan, many Afghan refugees will opt for staying in Iran and will not return to their own country.
The Iranian interior minister further noted that according to intelligence information, Takfiri groups are being transferred to Afghanistan, adding that US unilateral actions are worsening the country’s situation.
He called on the countries and the United Nations to heighten their efforts to prevent more conflicts as they can generate more refugees and immigration.
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