Iran provides educational services to 350,000 Afghan students, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the meeting of a committee attended by officials from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and UNHCR.

He added that the services Iran renders to Afghan children carry a $300-plus million price tag, while the UN voluntary aid to Iran hardly goes beyond $4 million.

When asked whether it would be possible to allow the Afghans to travel back to their country without repealing their residency permits, the minister said, “I am personally in favor of letting the Afghans immigrants go back to their country to see development there firsthand and get motivated to relocate permanently, but the proposal needs to be decided on at the committee.”

By IFP