Interior minister: Iran lacks capacity to host more migrants
Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni placed a premium on the necessity of organizing foreign nationals in the country, saying that Iran has no capacity to host more foreign nationals.
Addressing a ceremony in the southeastern province of Kerman on Tuesday, Momeni said, “We have said multiple times that we are not anti-immigrant, but we do not have the capacity to take in more foreign nationals.”
He underlined that organizing foreign nationals is one the country’s crucial issues.
Under the international laws, the country which hosts migrants from other countries should receive international aid while the international aid given to Iran with several million immigrants is close to zero.
The minister noted that closing borders is necessary to prevent recurring influx of migrants from neighboring countries.
Shahbaz Hosseinpour, a member of Iran’s Parliament, said that the presence of migrants in Kerman Province has reached a critical level. He added, “At one school I visited, nearly 100% of the students were foreign nationals.”
He stressed that the public is demanding urgent decisions to organize the immigrants.
Approximately 38,000 illegal Afghan nationals have been deported from Iran’s southeastern Kerman Province to their home country in recent months.
The recent expulsions are part of the ongoing efforts to meet the target set by the government to repatriate two million illegal migrants by the end of the Iranian calendar year on March 20.
Kerman Province is facing significant challenges with illegal immigration from neighboring Afghanistan, which has led to population imbalances and increased unemployment.
The number of illegal immigrants in Iran is unofficially estimated to be around 10 million, with many seeking better economic opportunities or fleeing conflict in their home country, especially since the 2021 takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.