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DEFENDERS
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the oppressed and the poor of the world,
the Islamic Revolution of Iran has
always tried to support these vulnerable
groups. It was with this policy that the
gates of the Islamic Republic of Iran
were opened to Afghan refugees, and a
huge wave of Afghans who fled their
country because of war and internal
conflict poured into Iran, and the
Islamic Republic with consideration of
observation of its Islamic principles,
gave them refuge with open arms, and
became one of the biggest refugee
accepting countries of the world. It
was due to this new Iranian policy that
refugees could settle in any part of Iran
without restrictions.
The periods of the entry of Afghan
refugees has been very diverse.
Unfortunately the people ofAfghanistan
have continually struggled with power
conflicts, and been victims of big
powers demands and wishes, and have
suffered the most physical and material
losses. The occupation of this country
by the Soviet Union from December '79
to February '89 which left almost 1.5
million dead and six million refugees
in Iran and Pakistan. Following the rise
of extremist groups such as the Taliban
supported by foreign powers from the
middle of 1994, another setback befell
the country. Also with the US led attack
against Afghanistan on the excuse of
the 9/11 attacks, the fight against the
Taliban took a serious turn and their
eventual defeat, although on the short
run voluntary repatriation of refugees
saw up to 800,000 Afghans return to
Afghanistan from Iran, but in the long
run due to the occupation of the country
and also inattention to their needs,
almost 2 million Afghans entered Iran
illegally.
In the initial years, the Islamic
Republic of Iran provided basic
services directly or indirectly (subsidies
to Iranian citizens that refugees also
benefited from) alone without any
aid or assistance from international
organizations and the UNHCR. With
the passage of years of residence of
these individuals and consideration of
the appearance of a number of realities,
economic problems and various
pressures, finally the Islamic Republic
of Iran, opened its doors to international
organizations such as the UNHCR.
Meanwhile Iranian charity and
nongovernmental organizations who
had entered the serving of refugees long
before the international organizations,
shoulder to shoulder with international
organizations, continued to provide
services.
The majority of refugees in Iran are
Afghan, who entered Iran in the early
'80s. over 70 percent of these refugees
are from the Hezareh and Tajik tribes,
and the rest from other tribes such
as Pashtoons. According to existing
figures in 2011, 57 percent of refugees
wereresiding in Tehran, Khorasan
Razavi or Isfahan provinces, and
another 22 percent in Kerman, Fars or
Ghomprovinces.Also 8 percent of them
reside in Ghazvin, South Khorasan,