Support for Afghan migrant children in Iran

Photo Credit: UNHCR Tehran

TMP – 21/02/2017

More than 200 Afghan children living in Iran recently took part in a day of educational activities organized by UNHCR in Tehran, Iran’s Provincial Bureau of Aliens and Foreign Immigrants’ Affairs and other civil society partners.

The event aimed to raise awareness of the need for child refugee protection. Many of the activities focused on promoting openness, hospitality and belonging – even outside ones’ homeland – alongside the importance of remembering one’s own culture, traditions and origins.

Some three million refugees currently live in Iran, most of whom are Afghan nationals.
On an official visit to Iran last September, Afghan Minister for Refugees Alami Balkhi announced that the Iranian government would begin issuing work visas and official documents to Afghan migrants in the country.

“We agreed that people who want to go to Iran should now apply for a legal visa. This way we can prevent human trafficking where people must pay money to human traffickers on the way or they are killed,” Iranian Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli said.