This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000186 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA/FO, SA/A, S/CT, EUR/RPM 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN, KAMEND 
CENTCOM FOR POLAD, CG CFA-A, CG CJTF-76 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV AF
SUBJECT: PRT HERAT: FEWER AFGHAN REFUGEES RETURNING FROM 
IRAN; THE GROWTH OF MIGRANT LABOR? 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Latest data from United Nations High 
Commission for Refugees 
(UNHCR) indicate significant increase in Afghan migrant 
labor in Iran. Undocumented 
Afghans who turn themselves in to Iranian authorities are 
treated as spontaneous returnees and given free 
transportation to the border. Few official Afghan 
han 
refugees are now returning from Iran, suggesting most of 
those still there wish to remain. Iranian revalidation of 
refugee identity cards in 2005 also lessened pressure on 
refugees to depart the country.  Isolated and lawless 
Nimroz province is the major transit point for undocumented 
Afghans traveling to Iran.  Zaranj, the provincial capital, 
is essentially an Iranian town.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) UNHCR Herat Chief Bernie Doyle reviewed with 
PRToff the latest data on Afghan returnees from Iran, 
showing an overall downward trend for 2005.  According to 
the numbers, overall Afghan returnees decreased from over 
half a million in 2004 to about 384,000 last year. 
According to UNHCR, those Afghans categorized as assisted 
voluntary repatriates, documented Afghan refugees who 
returned with UNHCR assistance, dropped by a factor of six, 
from 377,505 to just 62,793.  Spontaneous returnees -- 
those persons who may be documented as refugees but return 
urn 
to Afghanistan without UNHCR help -- tripled to 225,662. 
Deportee numbers -- non-refugee undocumented Afghans, 
almost always young men, who are forcibly returned by 
Iranian authorities -- continued a four-year upward trend, 
rising in 2005 almost 20 percent to 95,841. 
 
--------------- 
Damn Statistics 
--------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Doyle explained that the raw numbers required 
elaboration.  The huge increase in spontaneous returnees 
reflects, he said, the many Afghans residing and working 
illegally in Iran. Rather than refugees, they could be 
characterized more appropriately as migrant workers who 
serve as a cheap labor pool for Iranian companies. They 
also act, he added, as a safety valve for Afghan 
unemployed.  When ready to return to 
Afghanistan, these individuals and family members generally 
turn themselves in to Iranian authorities who then provide 
transport to the border. Because there is no incarceration, 
the returnees are not technically deportees. 
 
s. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The dramatic increase in spontaneous returnees 
from 2004 to 2005 also reflects a change in GOI policy 
towards Afghans resident in Iran.  Prior to 2005, Doyle 
noted, Iranian authorities targeted documented refugees for 
forcible return, resulting in many assisted voluntary 
repatriations but generating high level protests from the 
GOA. The GOA complaints appear to have paid off. Last year, 
Iran shifted its focus to targeting undocumented persons. 
Thus, to avoid possible arrest, undocumented Afghans, when 
ready to return to Afghanistan, select the path of least 
resistance and receive the bonus of 
a free ride to the border. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Another key reason for the drop off in official 
refugees, Doyle added, was the elimination of an important 
push factor in 2005.  After many months of uncertainty when 
all Amayesh refugee identity cards had been invalidated, 
Iranian authorities in mid- 
2005 decided to revalidate them. The GOI message to 
refugees: its okay to stay longer. 
onger. 
This softer approach by the GOI, however, has added a 
degree of operational uncertainty for UNHCR.  Officially, 
over 800,000 Afghan refugees, and probably many more 
undocumented Afghans, reside in Iran. If refugees return in 
lower numbers, the UNHCR mission becomes more open-ended. 
How many years, Doyle wondered, will it be before the UNHCR 
program here can be completed? 
 
------------------- 
Abuses of Returnees 
------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Doyle noted that following complaints to the GOI 
by the GOA, the Afghan 
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), and UNHCR, 
there were fewer reports of acute abuses, including 
robbery, extortion, and sexual abuse, in immigration 
detention centers.  He admitted, however, this did not mean 
the abuses have ended. 
UNHCR has no direct evidence of deaths, although stories 
of Afghans locked up in containers during the summer led 
him to suspect deaths had occurred.  UNHCR hoped the GOA 
would keep this issue on the table in its bilateral 
discussions with Iran. 
 
. 
 
----------------------- 
Zaranj, an Iranian Town 
----------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) In 2004, UNHCR reassigned Nimroz Province from 
the Kandahar to the Herat office, which focuses on Iran. 
The reason was clear. The key pipeline for illegal Afghan 
migration with Iran is through Nimroz and its provincial 
capital, Zaranj.  Along with a couple of tiny NGOs, UNHCR 
is the only international presence in town. (UNHCR also has 
local staff on the Iranian side of the Zaranj bridge, in 
Zabol about 25 miles inside Iran, and in Zahedan, a major 
Iranian city a few hours south.)  According to the UNHCR 
chief, Afghans come from all over Afghanistan and funnel 
through Zaranj where border controls are almost non- 
existent.  In reverse, most deportees/returnees back to 
Afghanistan are channeled by the GOI through Zaranj -- not 
Islam Qala, Herat. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Doyle described Zaranj as a town with no legal 
controls.  Drugs flow freely through town in truck convoys. 
The provincial governor, Doyle alleged, is up to his 
eyeballs in the drug trade. In a market in Zaranj, farmers 
sell their few kilos of opium openly. Meanwhile, even 
Afghans, he said, are afraid to utilize the new road being 
built by the Indians from Zaranj to the Ring Road; many 
avoid it by traveling on an alternative southern route to 
Lashkar Gah. The Indian engineers working on the road are 
scared to death  a fact confirmed by the Indian Consul 
General in a separate conversation with PRToff. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Comment:  Based on Doyles comments, most Afghans 
resident in Iran, whether refugees or undocumented 
migrants, remain in that country by choice -- the vast 
majority for economic reasons. Thus, the situation may be 
less a refugee crisis for Afghanistan and more a challenge 
for Iranian officials to cope with a flood of undocumented 
aliens. Long lines daily in front of the Iranian Consulate 
in Herat suggest Afghans holding valid Iranian visas are 
also crossing in large numbers. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Comment continued: The increasing use of Nimroz 
mroz 
as the principal crossing for undocumented Afghans entering 
Iran, and Afghans deported by Iran back to Afghanistan, is 
logical  given the lack of any governmental authority in 
that province. Already known was the widespread use of 
Nimroz for drug smuggling.  Strengthening Afghan border 
controls there should become a more urgent task.   End Comment.