TEHRAN: Iran's military has built a wall along more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) of its eastern border with Afghanistan, the main entry point for migrants, local media reported on Monday.
“More than 10 kilometers of walls have been built on the border and another 50 kilometers are ready to be walled,” ISNA The news agency reported citing General Nozar Nemati, deputy commander of the army's ground forces.
Iran shares a border of more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) with Afghanistan, and the Islamic republic is home to one of the world's largest refugee populations.
They are mostly well-integrated Afghans who arrived in the past 40 years after fleeing conflict in their home country.
The flow of Afghan migrants has increased since the Taliban took power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US forces.
Tehran has not released official figures on the number of Afghan migrants, but lawmaker Abolfazl Torabi has estimated their number at between “six and seven million.”
The authorities have recently increased pressure on “illegal” refugees and regularly announce expulsions across the eastern border.
“By blocking the border, we want to control entry and exit from the country” and “better increase the security of the border areas,” said General Nemati.
In September, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said Iran would use other methods, including barbed wire and water-filled ditches, in addition to the wall to block the border.
On September 13, parliamentary National Security Committee spokesman Ebrahim Rezaei said police plan to “expel more than two million illegal citizens in the near future.”
According to the official IRNA According to the Iranian news agency, Afghans make up “more than 90% of foreigners” in Iran and “most of them enter the country without identity documents.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his government plans to “repatriate illegal nationals to their country in a respectful manner.”
In the year beginning March 2023, Iran hosted more than 2.7 million documented Afghan refugees, according to the Statistical Center.
That figure represents 97% of legal immigrants in the country.
