The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees in Tehran, Sivanka Dhanapala, has lauded Iran’s record in hosting foreign refugees.
On Thursday June 26, Dhanapala said Iran has been highly successful in hosting one of the highest number of refugees in the world by investing in refugee welfare and education.
He said one of the chief indicators of this success is that the literacy rate for Afghan refugees in Iran has risen from six percent in 1980 to 60 percent in 2013.
Iran’s head of refugee affairs, Aziz Kazemi, said 950,000 Afghan refugees are currently living in Iran with 320,000 students doing school work and 11,000 more studying toward a higher education.
He added that 97 percent of refugees living in Iran are integrated into society, live among the rest of the population and enjoy all social services, while in most other countries, refugees are hosted in special camps only.
