TEHRAN, May 23 (Online): Iran banned Afghans from residing in the country's eastern border provinces for unspecified security reasons.
Ahmad Hosseini, head of the ministry's refugees office, said the decision includes the border provinces of Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and that Afghans living in the area have to return to Afghanistan as soon as possible.
However, he did not elaborate on the reason behind the ban.
The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of harboring senior al-Qaida operatives who reportedly fled to the neighbouring Islamic republic after the US-led war on Afghanistan in 2001.
Iran rejects the charges, saying it remains committed to fighting terrorism. Iran also insists it has made a significant contribution to the war on terror by arresting agents of Osama bin Laden's terror network.
There are about a million Afghan refuges living in Iran, Tehran expects half of them to leave the country before the end of this year.
More than 1.3 million Afghan refugees have left Iran through a United Nations repatriation program in the last three years.
About 180,000 Afghanis who sneaked through Iran's porous 945-kilometer border seeking jobs were deported from Iran last year.
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