IRAN - Dec. 2 - Tehran Denies Forcible Repatriation Of Refugees.The IHT IHT International Herald Tribune (newspaper)IHT Inheritance Tax (UK) IHT Institution of Highways & Transportation (UK) IHT Intermittent Hypoxic Training quotes senior Interior Ministry official Gholamreza Mashadi as saying: "I insist that no [Afghan] refugee has ever been forcibly forc·i·ble adj. 1. Effected against resistance through the use of force: The police used forcible restraint in order to subdue the assailant. 2. Characterized by force; powerful. repatriated". He says some of those deported included criminals, such as smugglers, and many Afghans among the 2.4m in the country are going back of their own free will. (His comments answer UN concerns that Tehran is deporting Afghan refugees Afghan refugees (known as Muhajir Afghans in South Asia) are people who fled Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979 and during the civil war that followed. Since the early 1980s to the late 1990s, there were approximately 3 million Afghan refugees staying in . Iran closed its border with Afghanistan in early October, fearing a mass influx of refugees). He says the ministry will investigate UN claims of refugees being deported if the UN could give evidence. Asked about new arrivals, he replies: "If there are some people who face problems, they can get a visa and enter the country". But UN aid workers in Iran say the return rate of Afghan refugees has averaged nearly 1,000 a day since mid-Nov. Aid workers are concerned that several thousand Afghans, including families with children, have been forced across the border. Bo Schack, deputy chief of mission with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR UNHCR n abbr (= United Nations High Commission for Refugees) → ACNUR m UNHCR n abbr (= United Nations High Commission for Refugees) → HCR m ) in Tehran, said: "Deportations remain an issue of serious concern". He said the Interior Ministry had earlier given assurances that deportations would be suspended sus·pend v. sus·pend·ed, sus·pend·ing, sus·pends v.tr. 1. To bar for a period from a privilege, office, or position, usually as a punishment: suspend a student from school. and that Tehran would work with the UN on a programme of mass voluntary repatriation Repatriation The process of converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country. Notes: If you are American, converting British Pounds back to U.S. dollars is an example of repatriation. next spring. On Nov. 29, Schack said Tehran deported about 240 Afghans aboard six buses at the Dogarun crossing with no arrangements on the other side to receive them. The UNHCR said it was excluded from any screening process to see whether the deportees qualified as refugees. |
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