UNHCR official calls Iran role model in hosting refugees

Iran should be introduced as a role model in the world in hosting refugees, a senior official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

News ID: 5844

Date: 23 January 2025 - 14:47

TABNAK, Jan 23: UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Raouf Mazou made the remarks in a meeting with Governor of Khorasan Razavi Province Gholam Hossein Mozaffari in the holy city of Mashhad.

He added that in many countries, refugees live in camps, but they live a normal life in Iran like other citizens.

He criticized inadequate media coverage of the services Iran is providing to the immigrants and emphasized that the UNHCR should explain Iran’s actions to others so that all the countries in the world would adopt similar measures.

Mozaffari, for his part, reaffirmed Iran’s humanitarian policy towards refugees but emphasized that the country expects more international support in this regard.

Based on figures, a large number of refugees are living in conditions almost identical to those of Iranians inside the country, he added.

According to the UNHCR Iran factsheet for April-June 2024, Iran is host to the largest refugee population in the world, hosting 3.8 million refugees and people in refugee-like situations, generously hosting refugees for over four decades.

The factsheet noted that 99% of registered refugees live in urban areas side by side with the local communities while 1% of registered refugees live in 21 refugee settlements in 12 provinces of Iran.