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UN appreciates Iran’s hospitality toward Afghans

Daisy Dell (C), the director of the UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, addresses a meeting of the Quadripartite Steering Committee, a regional initiative to examine the situation of Afghan refugees, in Tehran, Iran, May 19, 2015. (© IRNA)

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed gratitude for Iran for its supportive efforts regarding the Afghan refugees in the country despite little financial assistance provided by the international community.

Daisy Dell, the director of the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said Tuesday that Iran and Pakistan have supported the Afghan asylum seekers in spite of the fact that the international community has made little financial contribution to their efforts.

Dell was addressing a forum in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on the Afghan refugees. The meeting, known as the Quadripartite Steering Committee, kicked off earlier in the day and was attended by high-ranking officials from the three neighboring countries of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as the representatives of the UNHCR’s regional office.

Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli also briefed the gathering about the current situation of the Afghan refugees in Iran and elaborated on the huge costs of resettling them within the country.

Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli attends a meeting on Afghan refugees in Tehran, May 19, 2015. (© IRNA)

 

Only in the field of education, Fazli said, Iran is providing services to more than 350,000 Afghan students with an expenditure of over USD 300 million each year. The Iranian minister added that the UN and donor countries contribute only about USD four million in the field of education for Afghan refugees.

“In areas like health, livelihood and food, the amount of the international donations is tiny,” Fazli said, adding that the governments of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan demand that the UN, as the coordinator of the donor countries, have the amount of the aid increased.

MS/HSN/HJL


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