Afghanistan unconcerned with Iranian threat to expel Afghans, official says

Others have expressed concern over the future of the 3 million Afghans living in Iran

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said US sanctions could threaten the status of Afghan refugees. EPA

Afghanistan is not concerned by statements by a senior Iranian official bemoaning the cost of hosting three million Afghan refugees living in the country, the Afghan minister of refugees has said.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi was initially criticised after bemoaning the cost Afghan refugees living in the country, claiming US sanctions are making it hard to support them.

He said that displaced Afghans are taking up the country's jobs, school places and clogging up its health care system, in an interview with IRNA, a state-linked news agency, on Saturday.

Mr Araghchi threatened to deport the refugees, saying that Europeans should take in refugees because their continued displacement is due to problems created by Western countries.

He also claimed that "468,000 Afghan students are being educated in Iran’s government schools, and each student costs us 600 euros a year".

But the comments have not ruffled Iran's neighbour, according to Afghan Minister of Refugees Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi. "The government in Kabul says it has no concerns for Afghan refugees living in Iran, which has warned of considering their expulsion,” Pajhwok Afghan news agency reported.

If US sanctions bring Iran crude exports to zero "it is possible that we ask our Afghan brothers and sisters to leave Iran," Mr Araghchi said, the Associated Press reported, because hosting them annually costs the equivalent of several billion dollars.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency on Thursday criticised Mr Araghchi, saying: "We wish you had not made the statement."

Some reactions were stronger: "Firing Araghchi is the minimum response to his huge mistake," a prominent hard-line political activist, Ali Naderi tweeted.

Others called Mr Araghchi's remarks "throwing words under pressure" and accused him of using Afghans as "leverage" for receiving concessions.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani last week said that Iran now co-operates on issues like targeting Afghan opium and hashish traffickers and controlling immigration. He threatened Europe by saying they must co-operate with Iran over this issue and help solve the Iran nuclear agreement.

"You are obliged … for your own security, for protecting your youths against drugs as well as controlling influx of immigrants," the president said.