TEHRAN: According to local media on Monday, Iran’s military has constructed a wall spanning more than 10 kilometers along its eastern border with Afghanistan, which serves as the primary entry point for immigrants.
According to General Nozar Nemati, deputy commander of army ground forces, “more than 10 kilometers of walls have been built on the border and another 50 kilometers are ready to be walled off,” as reported by the ISNA news agency.
Iran and Afghanistan have a border that is almost 900 kilometers long, and the Islamic republic is home to one of the world’s greatest numbers of refugees. This group consists primarily of integrated Afghans who came over the last 40 years, having fled violence in their own country. After US soldiers left Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban took control and the number of immigrants from that country has grown.
Although Abolfazl Torabi, a member of parliament, has put the number of Afghan immigrants at “between six and seven million,” Tehran has not released official statistics on the matter.
Lately, the government has stepped up its efforts to deport “illegal” immigrants, frequently announcing their departure across the eastern border. General Nemati stated, “We want to control the country’s entries and exits by blocking the border” and “better increase the security of border areas.”
In addition to the wall, Iran would block the border with barbed wire and water-filled trenches, according to Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni’s September statement.
Police want to “expel more than two million illegal citizens in the near future,” according to Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesman for the legislative National Security Committee, who made this announcement on September 13. In Iran, Afghanis make up “more than 90% of foreign nationals,” and the majority of them enter the nation without identifying documents, according to the state news agency IRNA.
