In his message issued on World Refugee Day on Monday, Vahidi said that the international occasion is an opportunity to take into consideration demands and needs of the people who have been displaced because of war and taken refuge in other countries to seek security.
The Iranian interior minister referred to the Islamic Republic’s efforts to generously host refugees from the neighboring countries over the past 40 decades, including those from Afghanistan.
He said that the US military presence in certain countries has been the main reason behind instability and therefore displacement of people in the region.
Vahidi added, over the past year alone, a large number of the Afghan people were displaced and sought refuge in other countries as a result of the more-than-two-decade military presence of the US and its occupation of Afghanistan, which deteriorated security there.
He said that Iran has been a prime destination for the Afghan refugees as the two countries share a vast border area.
The official noted that Iran has relentlessly offered health, medical, and educational services to those refugees, despite all the problems and restrictions the country is facing because of sanctions imposed by the US.
Vahidi said that Afghan children residing in Iran are receiving free education following an order by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in 2015.
He added that the Afghan refugees have received free-of-charge Covid vaccines and are also receiving subsidies offered by the Iranian government for basic supplies such as bread, water and electricity.
The Iranian minister noted that his country has continued to render all these services while international organizations, which claim to be defending refugees’ rights, have taken a double-standard approach in allocating funds to the countries hosting the refugees.
He said that these organizations have offered the least amount of support to Iran which hosts more than four million refugees from other nations.
Vahidi said that Iran has always asked governments around the world to help promote security in the countries from where people flee so that the world’s refugee crisis is tackled.
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