With more than one million persons in need of protection, Iran hosted the largest caseload of non-Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. Spontaneous and assisted repatriation of some 300,000 Afghans left approximately 1.1 million Afghan refugees in Iran at year's end, along with 150,000 Iraqis and some 5,000 others. Additionally, some 50,000 Iraqis repatriated from Iran. Although the Islamic Republic of Iran does not generally accept or process applications from asylum seekers, it received 29 applications in 2003, rejecting all but one from a Palestinian whose case remained pending at year's end.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) continued its voluntary repatriation program begun in 2002, assisting 3,800 Iranian refugees to return from Iraq in 2003. UNHCR accepted almost 1,100 refugees – mostly Afghan and Iraqi women-at-risk – for resettlement to third countries. By year's end, some 900 had departed. An estimated 18,700 Iranians sought asylum elsewhere during the year, with nearly 12,000 applications made to countries outside the Middle East.

Afghan Repatriation

UNHCR assisted some 142,000 Afghans to return home from Iran in 2003, and more than 125,000 others repatriated on their own. Iran grants prima facie refugee status to Afghans who arrived before the end of 2001. During 2003, UNHCR amended its count of Afghan refugees in Iran, adjusting the figure downward to reflect a re-registration totaling 1.4 million Afghans. Authorities believe that more than 500,000 additional Afghans live in Iran, illegally employed in the agricultural and construction sectors.

Early in 2003, the government of Iran signed a revised tripartite agreement with the government of Afghanistan and UNHCR to facilitate the voluntary return of Afghans by March 2005. In 2002, the head of refugee affairs at the Ministry of the Interior declared categorically "we are not prepared to receive refugees any more, for budgetary reasons." Iran estimates that every refugee costs Iran $674 a year, and that the international community shares only $6 of this burden. As a result, Iranian authorities planned to eliminate education and medical assistance to registered refugees, switching to a fee-for-service system in 2004.

Further reducing services for refugees in the country, half of the non-governmental organizations (NGO) operating in Iran withdrew from the country in 2003, frustrated by increased bureaucratic obstacles from the government. UNHCR also reported opposition from Iran's Bureau for Aliens and Foreigner Immigrant Affairs (BAFIA) in implementing various projects for refugees.

In April, UNHCR began screening unregistered Afghans threatened with deportation, based at the Dogharoun exit station on the Iran-Afghan border. Between April and December Iranian authorities deported some 16,000 Afghans who lacked legal status, with UNHCR reporting that roughly 10 percent of the deportees were women and unaccompanied minors. Forty-four submitted asylum claims, but UNHCR denied them all and remained convinced that no refugees were among the deportees.

On December 26, 2003, an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale leveled the city of Bam in Iran's southeastern province, that killed an estimated 30,000 people, injured another 30,000, and made more than 50,000 people homeless. At least 5,100 Afghan refugees were known to be living in the area at the time. It was unclear how many refugees died in the earthquake, but early estimates counted some 1,100 to 1,200 survivors, and soon after the new year, UNHCR assisted approximately 1,000 to repatriate.

Iraqi Refugees

Thousands of Iraqis spontaneously began to return from Iran, after more than 20 years of exile and few returns over the years. At the beginning of 2003, Iran hosted 202,000 Iraqi Shi'a refugees from the Iran-Iraq war – some 48,000 living in refugee camps and the rest in cities. A further estimated 80,000 undocumented Iraqis also lived in Iran. Many ignored UNHCR appeals to delay their return until security inside Iraq improved, and made the overland journey alone or with traffickers – at the risk of landmines, extreme temperatures, and possible arrest by coalition forces. By November, officials estimated that some 50,000 had spontaneously left Iran, prompting UNHCR to facilitate and safeguard their repatriation with organized convoys that helped an additional 520 refugees return by year's end. Once across the border, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) soldiers escorted the returnees to Basra, 20 km from the border, providing them with tents, heating and cooking equipment, bedding, and $20 for transport to assist their return to their villages.

At the start of the war in Iraq in March 2003, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) arranged a charter flight from Iran for a group of 140 Sudanese – mostly migrant workers – in Iraq. The Iranian government and IOM agreed to transfer the Sudanese across the border and fly them out the same day. In other developments during the year, Iran entered into a readmission agreement with the government of Australia.

Iranian Asylum Seekers

Several thousand Iranian asylum seekers continued to live in Turkey in anticipation of durable solutions to their often-irregular status. Approximately 14,500 Iranians remained in Iraq, and 1,100 – mostly Iranian Kurds who fled al-Tash camp near Baghdad – remained stranded in the no-man's land between Iraq and Jordan. In addition, some 500 Iranian members of religious minorities were stranded at the end of the year in Austria, hoping for resettlement in the United States after having had their applications denied as a result of more stringent U.S. immigration measures in effect since 2001.

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