Several families have reported that it is increasingly hard for them to enrol their children, despite having papers certifying their refugee status. Millions of people, including many children, have already been sent back while the campaign to expel more continues to intensify. The first 10 km of a wall that will divide the two countries has been built.

Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – School has started in Iran, but not for Afghan refugee children living in the country. Several families have said that, due to increasingly stringent rules and high school fees, their children are not allowed to enrol in school.

Jamshid, who has lived in Iran for three years, told AmuTV that, “Even though I had a letter from the Ministry of Education, the school principal told me there was no space and refused to register” his children.

Like him, most Afghan refugees fled their homeland to escape the Taliban, who regained control of the country in August 2021.

Since then, about half of the population has found itself severely food insecure, while about 85 per cent live on less than a dollar a day, this according to the United Nations.

Jamshid explained that this year only his daughters were accepted, but not his two sons.

In some Iranian provinces, including Kerman, Shiraz and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, school authorities have reportedly refused to enrol Afghan students who have only basic papers, reports AmuTV, a multimedia channel based outside Afghanistan.

Ham-Mihan, an Iranian pro-reform newspaper, reported that to stay in Iran, Afghan migrants are now forced to buy a "smart card" that costs one billion rials (about ,700).

However, many Afghan refugees avoid registering with UN agencies or Iranian authorities fearful that registration will lead to deportation, or because they hope that Iran is only a transit country to Europe.

In June, the humanitarian organisation Norwegian Refugee Council reported that only 600,000 Afghan children were enrolled in school for the 2023-24 school year out of more than 1.5 million (with the Afghan refugee population said to be around 4.5 million, but is likely much higher).

For Iran's Education Ministry, 556,000 Afghan children had valid papers to have access to education last year.

“Most Afghan families have the necessary documents, but due to the deportation push, many provinces are not allowing these students to enrol,” said Nahid Masoudi, an advocate for Afghan migrants’ rights in Iran.

According to data from last year, Iran hosts the largest number of Afghans together with Pakistan and the issue has had major repercussions in the country for quite a while.

Local media file daily reports of crimes allegedly involving Afghan nationals, who are also blamed for the difficult situation in the labour market or for carrying infectious diseases.

Last year, Iran's Supreme National Security Council announced that Afghans would no longer be allowed to live in at least 16 provinces of the country.

In May, the Interior Ministry said that some 1.3 million "irregular migrants" had been sent back to Afghanistan in the past year.

According to some reports, 20,000 children have also been repatriated, many unaccompanied, as well as people of Afghan descent who do not know their country of origin.

With the election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, the push for expulsion increased. Iranian authorities announced plans to repatriate another two million Afghans in the next six months.

Earlier this month, Iran's parliament proposed cutting the "foreign population" (essentially Afghan refugees) by 10 per cent a year.

If this becomes legislation, local authorities will have to ensure that "foreign nationals" do not exceed 3 per cent of the population in any city or province.

In the meantime, the construction of the first 10 kilometres of a concrete wall has been completed, sealing off the north-eastern border between the two countries, the one most used by refugees.

“The wall will improve the security of the country and the border areas, while also positively impacting the country's economy,” Brigadier General Nozar Nemati told local media.

• iran
• afghanistan
• refugees
• repatriation
• expulsion
• taliban
• border wall