More than 700,000 undocumented Afghans have returned so far this year from Iran which is suffering from economic woes due to sanctions, the United Nations said.
More than 700,000 Afghans return from Iran in 11 months as economy slows
Afghan Voice Agency(AVA) , 6 Dec 2018 - 13:57
More than 700,000 undocumented Afghans have returned so far this year from Iran which is suffering from economic woes due to sanctions, the United Nations said.
From 1st January until December 1, a total of 721,633 Afghans returned from Iran, and another 30,692 were back from Pakistan, according to a report by the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
“Undocumented returns from Iran in particular are seeing a massive increase over previous years, largely driven by recent political and economic issues in Iran including massive currency devaluation,” the IOM report said.
Demand for Afghan labour in Iran’s informal economy had drastically fallen, it said.
“As all Afghans typically send home their earnings in the form of monthly remittances, the Afghan economy itself, already evident in the drought affected provinces of Herat, Badghis and Ghor, is suffering direct and immediate effects.”
In November, US officially re-imposed all sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted under 2015 nuclear deal.
Iranian currency has lost about 70 percent of its value this year.
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