TEHRAN: Up to 5,000 Afghan refugees a day are crossing into neighboring Iran, compounding the already heavy burden it faces hosting an estimated 3.6 million Afghans, a relief group said Wednesday.
The Norwegian Refugee Council called for more international support for Iran, which despite facing tough US economic sanctions, operates what the council described as one of the most inclusive refugee policies in the world.
“Iran cannot be expected to host so many Afghans with so little support from the international community,” the council’s secretary general Jan Egeland said after a visit to Iran this week.
“There must be an immediate scale up of aid both inside Afghanistan and in neighboring countries like Iran, before the deadly winter cold.”
The council said it was estimated that at least 300,000 Afghans had crossed into Iran since the Taliban entered Kabul as US-led troops withdrew in August.
“We’ve heard heartbreaking stories from families that have recently arrived in Iran,” Egeland said.
“One refugee said they were targeted for being (Shiite) Muslim, their few remaining possessions were taken, their house burned and they had to flee multiple times within Afghanistan before reaching Iran.”
The council said around $136 million of a $300 million appeal launched by the UN refugee agency to help up to 515,000 people who may flee Afghanistan before the end of the year was earmarked for Iran.
It said so far the appeal was only 32 percent funded.
“Now the international community must step up to support Afghanistan’s neighbors and share the responsibility to help them to continue welcoming refugees,” Egeland said.
Aid group: Up to 5,000 Afghan refugees a day entering Iran
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Aid group: Up to 5,000 Afghan refugees a day entering Iran
- ‘We have heard heartbreaking stories from families that have recently arrived in Iran’
- At least 300,000 Afghans had crossed into Iran since the Taliban entered Kabul
French police raid home of culture minister in graft probe
- Raid comes as Rachida Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year.
- Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling
PARIS: French police on Thursday searched the homes of Culture Minister Rachida Dati, as well as the ministry and the Paris town hall she presides over, as part of a corruption probe, prosecutors said.
The police raid comes as Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year.
Dati, 60, has been accused of accepting nearly 300,000 euros ($343,000) in undeclared payments from major energy group GDF Suez while a member of the European parliament between 2010 and 2011. She has denied any wrongdoing.
The national financial prosecutor’s office on Thursday said the raids came after it had opened an investigation on October 14 into Dati over possible corruption, influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds.
Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling.
Accusations that she was lobbying on behalf of GDF Suez first emerged in French media reports in 2013 and the European parliament’s ethics committee questioned her.
French investigative television show “Complement d’Enquete” and the Nouvel Observateur magazine renewed the allegations in June.
Dati wants to become the French capital’s second woman mayor in a row in the March 2026 municipal vote.
She hopes to replace Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, 66, who is to step down after two terms in the post.
