300 Illegal Afghans Found Working in Sistan

During inspections of businesses, including industrial units and construction sites, in Sistan-Baluchestan Province since the beginning of the current fiscal (March), 322 foreign nationals were found working illegally and without permit, said the head of the provincial office of the Cooperatives, Work and Social Welfare Ministry.

“Legal action has been taken against both employers and workers, and locals are filling the vacant positions,” Mehrdad Jahandideh told IRNA on Monday. The vast majority of workers were Afghans that enter the country in big numbers from across the porous borders.

 Sistan and Baluchestan is in southeastern Iran bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There is no reliable data on the number of Afghan refugees (legal and illegal) living and working in Iran. An estimated 951,000 registered Afghans, 28,000 Iraqis and 1.5-2 million illegal Afghans are living in Iran. Many Afghans are second or third generation refugees and have never seen Afghanistan.

Tehran Province hosts 515,000 or almost one third of the Afghan population in the country. The provinces of Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan follow with 219,400, and 183,000 Afghans respectively.

Kurdestan Province in the west is home to 18 Afghans, the smallest refugee population in the country.

Employers are banned from employing foreigners who do not have the proper work and residence permits. However, many businesses disregard the regulation for more reasons than one.

As per law, employers have to pay 1.5 million rials ($40) as fine everyday for every illegal foreign national they employ. Committing the offense a second time doubles the daily fine and the third time carries a jail sentence plus a hefty fine.

Given the high unemployment rate in Iran, employing foreigners willing to work for extremely low wages with no benefits only exacerbates the problem. According to figures by the Statistical Center of Iran, unemployment rate stood at 12.6% at the beginning of the year -- 0.4% increase compared to last year.

The government in Tehran has time and again informed the UN refugee agency and officials in Kabul that it wants the refugees to leave sooner rather than later. It is generally believed that the Afghans refuse to return home largely due to the four-decade-old civil strife, terrorist attacks, rampant insecurity, poverty and joblessness in the war-ravaged country.