United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1998 - Iran, 1 January 1998, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a8a324.html [accessed 30 May 2023]
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Iran continued to host the largest number of refugees of any country in the world in 1997: 1.9 million. These included about 1.4 million Afghans and more than 500,000 Iraqis. Neither of these government figures could be independently confirmed, however. Iran has not granted outsiders access to its refugee registration systems and has provided little information on the legal status and rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the country. Most Afghan and Iraqi refugees have lived in Iran for more than a decade. Traditional Iranian hospitality toward them, however, suffered during 1997, in part because of Iran's fears that the refugees would compete in a tight labor market. The unemployment rate in Iran was about 25 percent in 1997. Moreover, the country's capacity to provide humanitarian assistance was impaired after a third earthquake within a year hit Khorasan Province in May, leaving 1,570 dead and 52,000 homeless, causing food stocks intended for Afghan refugees to be used for earthquake victims. Although the authorities once allowed refugees unrestricted movement within Iran, in recent years, Iran has increasingly restricted refugees to designated residential areas and enclosed camps. In 1997, some 87,000 refugees, both Iraqis (about 65,000) and Afghans (about 22,000), lived in 32 government-run refugee camps, and their number appeared to be growing. During the year, UNHCR-Tehran reported that 5,671 Iraqi refugees had voluntarily repatriated (although UNHCR-Baghdad recorded 8,300 arrivalsmeaning that some left spontaneously, but requested assistance upon arrival). About 1,000 were the remnants of the 65,000 Iraqi refugees who entered Iran after fighting erupted in northern Iraq in September 1996. The overwhelming majority repatriated before 1997. In addition, UNHCR assisted 2,145 Afghan refugees to repatriate during the year. There were indications, however, that Iranian authorities increasingly resorted to pushing back and forcibly repatriating both Iraqis and Afghans during the year, but little hard information and no statistics were available. In October, new refugee families arrived in Iran from southern Iraq and the Hazarajat region of Afghanistan. Although numbers could not be verified, NGOs estimated the figure to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Refugees from Afghanistan Iran has often signaled its intention to expel Afghans from Iran, but has not begun forcibly returning the massive numbers whom it has recognized as refugees. In recent years, however, the government has deregistered or refused to allow to register as refugees a large, but unknown, number of more recent Afghan arrivals. By some estimates, about 100 Afghans a day continued to cross into Iran during 1997 without documentation. Iran considered them "illegal aliens," subject to deportation. In July, authorities in Sistan-Baluchistan and Khorasan Provinces began rounding up "illegal" Afghans and deporting them to Afghanistan. Many of those deported were ethnic Uzbeks and Hazaras, and some were arrested upon arrival in Afghanistan, according to UNHCR. Despite fragmentary information on deportations, some observers estimated that the Iranian authorities forcibly returned to Afghanistan more than 1,000 Afghans per week in the last weeks of 1997. In the last six months of the year, 3,922 Afghans were deported at one crossing point, the Dogharoun border station in Khorasan Province. By calling them illegal aliens, the Iranian government prevented these Afghans from presenting refugee claims to UNHCR. Although all deportees were not necessarily refugees, USCR regards these 3,922 as forced returnees, and believes that the number of Afghans forcibly returned was substantially higher. According to UNHCR, 2,233 Afghans repatriated voluntarily in 1997, although the government's planning figure had been for 250,000 to repatriate. In November 1997, UNHCR officials met with Iranian government officials to discuss Afghan repatriation. They agreed to try to identify those Afghans wishing to repatriate and the obstacles to their return. UNHCR said that it would provide "an increased assistance package to those returning." UNHCR also agreed to target for rehabilitation projects areas inside Afghanistan where Afghan refugees in Iran originate. UNHCR and Iran agreed to work together to assist refugees' representatives to visit their home areas to assess conditions for repatriation. During 1997, the government introduced new measures to stop the influx of Afghans. There were reports that Iran ordered the digging of a "huge ditch" along its eastern border to deter undocumented aliens and smugglers. Iran also took measures to restrict the movement of Afghans already in the country. For example, local authorities in Mashad moved Afghans to designated areas. Restricting Afghans to camps and other designated areas risked creating dependency. Nevertheless, the Iranian authorities also withdrew government subsidies for health and education for Afghan refugees residing outside refugee camps, partly as an incentive for Afghans to move into camps. In response, UNHCR expanded its involvement in health and education to counterbalance the refugees' loss of those subsidies. A survey by the Iranian Ministry of Interior's Bureau of Aliens and Foreign Immigrant Affairs (BAFIA) concluded that, in 1997, 34.4 percent of Afghan refugees in Iran were ethnic Pashtuns, 27 percent Tajiks, 19.4 percent Hazaras, and 19.6 percent Uzbeks, Baluchis, and other ethnic groups. Although the government has provided this ethnic breakdown of the 1.4 million Afghan refugee population, it has provided no statistics on their legal status. Recognized refugees, those who fled Afghanistan during the 1980s, were supposed to have received a "green card," a refugee identification document enabling them to stay legally (although the duration of the stay is not specified, and could be revoked at any time). Green card holders were once entitled to subsidized health care and free primary and secondary education, but Iran has seriously restricted benefits in recent years. Since the withdrawal of food subsidies in 1995, economic conditions for green card holders have deteriorated. Green card holders were still eligible for repatriation assistance in 1997. The lack of protection provided by a green card was demonstrated in Khorasan Province in 1995 when the local authorities initiated a "regularization campaign" to make the province Afghan-free. They took away Afghan refugees' green cards and replaced them with one-way permits for return to Afghanistan. Consequently, many registered Afghan refugees joined the ranks of the undocumented. Starting in 1993, the Iranian authorities issued temporary registration cards to undocumented Afghans as a means of registering them for repatriation. Nearly 550,000 Afghans, mostly persons who entered in the 1990s, received temporary registration cards, giving them temporary legal status, but putting them on a track for repatriation. Between 1993 and 1995, the majority did, in fact, repatriate, but the uncertainty about conditions in Afghanistan caused many temporary registration card holders to remain longer than anticipated. By 1997, the authorities had declared the temporary registration cards invalid, meaning that most of those who had not repatriated were considered illegal aliens and subject to deportation. Nevertheless, many of the temporary card holders had fled fighting in and around Kabul and Herat and would likely have strong refugee claims if allowed to register them. They remained undocumented, however, living a marginalized existence without the right to work, to receive medical services, or to send their children to school. Some Afghans hold employment identity cards. These documents predicate the right to residence on holding a job. Work authorization cards do not bear an expiration date. In January 1997, the Iranian labor ministry ordered employers to fire foreign workers without work authorization. Subsequent reports said that officials confiscated hundreds of thousands of identification cards from Afghan refugees, taking away their right to work. In October, the government announced it would cancel employment authorization for 1 million foreign workers. Afghans comprise the largest number of foreign workers in Iran. There are no available estimates of the number of undocumented Afghans in Iran. Among the undocumented are persons Iran once recognized as refugees or who had some other legal status that has since expired. Generally, all new arrivals from Afghanistan are undocumented. Among them are persons who travel back and forth across the border depending on economic or political circumstances on either side. These include many fleeing from Hazarajat Province. This impoverished, predominantly Shi'ite area of central Afghanistan effectively is under a Taliban-imposed trade embargo that exacerbated already serious food shortages in 1997, causing considerable out-migration. Many of the newer arrivals in Iran are Hazaras and other non-Pashtun minorities, such as Turkomans and Uzbeks, whom the Taliban has considered as enemies and who could well have well-founded fears of persecution if returned. For most Afghans, jobs are limited to low-wage, manual day-labor, often in the construction industry. Afghans cannot run their own businesses or be street vendors. Thus, households headed by women or elderly men often have severely limited earning potential, and are significantly more impoverished than families headed by able-bodied men. Refugees from Iraq By the beginning of 1997, almost all of the 65,000 Iraqi refugees who had fled factional fighting in northern Iraq in September and October 1996 returned to Iraq. Subsequently, in early 1997, the Iranian government closed the remaining camps that had hosted these refugees, and the last 1,071 of the 1996 arrivals returned to Iraq. This left largely intact the pre-1996 population of more than 500,000 Iraqi refugees in Iran. UNHCR assisted some 4,600 refugees of this group to repatriate during the year. The pre-1996 population includes about 350,000 Iraqis expelled from Iraq at the time of the Iraq-Iran War because of their suspected Iranian origin, who have lived in the western region of Iran for more than a decade. In many cases, both Iran and Iraq dispute the expellees' citizenship, in effect, rendering many of them stateless. In practice, the Iranian authorities make no distinctions among Iraqi refugees whether or not Iraq acknowledges their citizenship. The population also includes an estimated 70,000 Shi'ite Arabs who have mostly fled from the southern Iraqi marshlands to Iran over the years. Another 2,645 Iraqi refugees have been resettled in Iran from the Rafha camp in Saudi Arabia. In June, an Iranian government delegation visited the Rafha camp to decide whether to accept more of the remaining 6,000 Iraqi refugees in that camp, most of whom are Shi'ites, and many of whom have expressed an interest in resettling in Iran. By year's end, the Iranian government had not indicated it was willing to do so. Government restrictions on work authorization affected Iraqi refugees during the year. Although long-term Iraqi refugees in Iran had largely achieved economic self-sufficiency, starting in December 1996 and continuing throughout 1997, the authorities began strictly enforcing labor regulations, rendering many previously employed refugees jobless. During the year, small numbers of Iraqis continued to cross into Iran from both northern Iraq and the southern marshes because they feared persecution in Iraq. They were less willing than in previous years to present themselves to the Iranian authorities, however. Kurdish refugees in Iran who were Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) members or sympathizers became increasingly vulnerable during the year because of Iran's backing of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). In June, Iran announced a program to repatriate 10,000 Iraqi Kurds to northern Iraq. It said they could safely return, even though the Turkish army had just launched the first of two incursions into the region. Between January and the end of November 1997, UNHCR-Tehran reported that it assisted 4,341 Iraqi Kurds to repatriate to northern Iraq. UNHCR-Baghdad reported having assisted 8,300 Iraqi Kurds returnees from Iran during the year, indicating that some left Iran spontaneously and only registered for assistance after arriving. Other Refugees Although the government claims to host more than 30,000 refugees of other nationalities, including Tajiks, Bosnians, Azeris, Eritreans, Somalis, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, it has provided no information about them or allowed UNHCR or other organizations access to them. Other Developments Despite a thaw in external relations with the election of Mohammad Khatami as president of Iran, the Iranian government continued to distance itself from outside governments and from international NGOs as well. Iran repeatedly reproached the international community for not providing enough humanitarian assistance for refugees in Iran. International and local NGOs met with the government in October to clarify the legal status of NGOs, their scope of action, and procedures for (and delays in) government approval of their projects. The meeting's outcome was not immediately clear. Later in the year, however, Iranian authorities appeared more responsive to NGO project proposals. Although, in September, President Khatami called on all Iranians living abroad "to return to their motherland," human rights conditions inside Iran, as well as mounting evidence of political killings of exiles directed from Tehran, dissuaded many Iranians from returning. Following the verdict of a German court that held the Iranian political leadership responsible for the 1997 Berlin murder of Sadeq Sharifkandi, the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, European Union states, except for Greece, suspended their policy of "critical dialogue" with the Iran government, and recalled their ambassadors. Closer to home, the special rapporteur for the UN Commission on Human Rights tallied 91 killings of mostly Kurdish oppositionists in Iraq in 1997, who, he said, were reportedly assassinated by agents of the Iranian regime or killed in armed clashes.
