MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Iran
Index
The preliminary 1986 national census figures included
approximately 2.6 million persons listed as refugees of foreign
nationality. The largest number, consisting of slightly more than
2.3 million, were Afghans. The refugees from Afghanistan were
concentrated in several refugee camps in eastern Iran, but
approximately one-third of them were living in such cities as
Mashhad, Shiraz, and Tehran at the time of the census. In addition,
there were nearly 300,000 refugees from Iraq, with which Iran had
been at war since 1980.
The influx of foreign refugees was the direct result of war on
Iran's borders. Since early 1980, the Afghan refugees had been
fleeing the fighting in their country between various Afghan
resistance groups and government forces assisted by more than
100,000 Soviet troops. The Iraqi refugees were expelled by their
own government, which claimed that they were really Iranian
descendants of persons who had immigrated to Iraq from Iran many
years ago. In addition to refugees of foreign origins, Tehran has
had to cope with several hundred thousand Iranian civilian refugees
from the war zones.
The Iraqi advance into Khuzestan in the fall of 1980 resulted
in extensive damage to the residential areas of two of Iran's major
cities, Abadan and Khorramshahr, as well as the destruction of
numerous small towns and villages
(see The Original Iraqi Offensive
, ch. 5). The intensive shelling of the large cities of Ahvaz and
Dezful also destroyed residential neighborhoods. Consequently, tens
of thousands of civilians fled southwestern Iran in 1980 and 1981,
and the government set up refugee reception areas in Shiraz,
Tehran, and other cities removed from the battle zone. During the
Iraqi occupation of Khuzestan, the government had to shelter up to
1.5 million refugees. Efforts to resettle at least some of the
refugees were undertaken in 1983 after Iran had recaptured much of
Khuzestan from Iraq; however, continued fighting in the area and
Iraqi air strikes on cities and towns in western Iran resulted in
a steady stream of displaced civilians in need of food and shelter.
During the period 1980 to 1981, the government of Iraq expelled
into Iran about 200,000 persons whom it claimed were Iranians. Most
were Iraqi citizens, sometimes whole families, who were or had been
residents of Iraq's Shia shrine cities and also were descendants of
Iranian clergy and pilgrims who had settled in the religious
centers as far back as the eighteenth century. In most cases, the
refugees had never been to Iran and could speak no Persian (Farsi).
Furthermore, they were required to leave the greater part of their
possessions in Iraq. Thus, the Iranian government had to provide
them with basic food and shelter.
Developing policies to deal with the Afghan refugees became a
major burden for the government as early as 1984 because the number
of Afghan refugees had continued to increase almost daily since the
first group crossed the border in 1980. Iran, however, received
virtually no international assistance for the Afghan refugees. It
set up several camps in eastern Iran where the refugees were
processed and provided with basic shelter and rations. These camps
were located in or near towns in Khorasan and were provided with
certain municipal services such as free access to public schools
for registered refugee children. Although no data have been
published on the gender and age composition of the refugees, press
reports indicate that most were probably women, children, and men
too old to fight, as in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Most
of the young men probably remained with the Afghan resistance
forces for the greater part of the year.
Although the Afghans were required to live in the special
refugee camps, by 1986 an estimated one-third of them had left the
camps and were living in residential areas of large cities such as
Mashhad, Shiraz, and Tehran. The Afghans apparently came to the
cities in order to earn money to support families who remained in
the camps. They engaged in street vending and worked on
construction sites or in factories. The Iranian press periodically
reported on the roundup of such Afghans and their forcible return
to the camps. The Afghans needed special work permits, but it was
not clear whether these were difficult or easy to obtain or whether
private employers required them as a condition of employment.
Data as of December 1987
|
|