UN agency seeks $18 million to assist Afghan refugees in Iran

(June 02,2010) The United Nations refugee agency is seeking $18 million to meet an anticipated shortfall in funding for its operation in Iran, which is hosting more than one million Afghans who fled their homeland. To date, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has received only around one fifth of the $36.8 million it has sought for its programmes for Afghan refugees, which are carried out in partnership with the Iranian Government. “Iran, which is facing its own economic difficulties amid the global downturn, has hosted two generations of Afghan refugees but has received little international support,” UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva.
Since 2002, UNHCR has helped more than 860,000 refugees repatriate to Afghanistan. In addition, a million Afghans have returned home spontaneously since that time. The vast majority – 97 per cent – of the more than one million registered Afghans remaining in Iran, live in urban or semi-urban settings, putting a strain on health, education and other local infrastructure.