History of Agency in the World and Iran

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in 1950 by the UN General Assembly. It is mandated to lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and the resolution of the refugee problem. The work of UNHCR is entirely non-political, humanitarian and social.

The legal status of refugees is defined in two international instruments: the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. These two tools together with the UN General Assembly Resolution 428 (V) that established the UNHCR Office and its Statute have been the foundation of both the international refugee law and UNHCR’s mandate to help and protect refugees. Since its inception the agency has assisted an estimated 50 million refugees to successfully restart their lives. In 2009, a total of 147 States are parties to one or both of the above mentioned international instruments. The Islamic Republic of Iran acceded to both the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol in 1975, with a series of reservations. UNHCR first opened an office in Iran in 1984. It expanded its presence and scope of activities in Iran with the massive influx of Iraqi refugees following the Gulf War in 1991 and the start of mass voluntary return movement to Afghanistan in 1992. Today, UNHCR has its country office in Tehran and three sub-offices in Mashad, Kerman and Ahwaz. It has two field offices in Orumieh and Dogharoun, one border crossing station in Dogharoun and one transit center in Shalamcheh. Four Voluntary Repatriation Centres are operating in Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashad, and Soleimankhani. Refugee camps/settlements in Iran are: seven for Iraqi Kurds (in Zanjan, West Azarbaijan (three), Kermanshah (two) and Kurdestan); three Iraqi Arab camps (in Lorestan, Fars and Khuzestan provinces) and six Afghan refugee camps/settlements (in Semnan, Bushehr, Kerman (two), Markazi and Khorasan Razavi provinces.)

Priorities Globally and in Iran

UNHCR’s responsibilities within its mandate are: Assisting asylum countries’ governments on refugee issues and asylum/migration nexus related issues in an advisory capacity; Protecting refugees by ensuring that their basic rights are respected in the host country; Ensuring that governments respect the rule of non-refoulement (not returning refugees to a country where they may be persecuted) and finding durable solutions for the problems of refugees through voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement. Main Objectives of UNHCR Iran: Facilitate voluntary and sustainable repatriation of Afghan and Iraqi registered refugees from Iran in safety and dignity; Ensure respect for the voluntary character of repatriation; Find durable solutions for vulnerable Afghan and Iraqi registered refugees and assist them via their families and/or their community to access various services, assistance and legal protection; Promote refugee rights in Iran; Further enhance protection environment of refugees in Iran in accordance with the refugee Convention and the relevant Iranian legislation; Ensure assistance interventions in Iran are reconfigured to emphasize more developmental approaches to enable return and social protection for the most vulnerable groups; Enhance the well being of refugee women, children and men through the improved Age, Gender, Diversity Mainstreaming (AGDM) strategy, by means of an annual Participatory Assessment (PA) to identify the pressing protection risks in livelihood, health, education etc of refugees/persons of concern (POC) and to address their prioritized needs and enhance the active participation of refugees at all levels of the programme cycle through the community and rights based approach; Ensure protection of refugee women, girls and boys through application of the “Sex and Gender Based Violence” Protocol and HIV/AIDS awareness raising programmes and Enhanced emergency preparedness.

Main projects/activities in Iran

Based on the results of the latest registration exercise for Afghan refugees (Amayesh III) carried out by BAFIA, there are 935,512 registered Afghan refugees. BAFIA’s 2007 registration exercise for Iraqi refugees showed 43,916 Iraqi registered refugees residing in Iran. The first Tripartite Agreement for the joint programme of voluntary repatriation of Afghan registered refugees between UNHCR, the Governments of Iran and Afghanistan was signed in 2002. This agreement was last extended on 27 February 2007 for one year, but not renewed in March 2008 by BAFIA.

Despite this, UNHCR still continues granting a cash grant of US$100 to each member of a returning refugee family up to a ceiling of US$500 for families of five or above, to facilitate their reintegration. The Iranian government continues to issue six-month extendable residence permits to registered refugees and is in the process of issuing temporary work permits.

Since the start of the voluntary repatriation programme until February 2009, around 1.8 million Afghan refugees returned to their country from Iran (both assisted and spontaneous). 859,476 of the Afghan returnees were assisted by UNHCR. Between November 2003 and end January 2009, 21,216 Iraqi refugees returned to their homeland with assistance from UNHCR. The return process to Iraq was halted in 2006 due to the volatile security situation there and was resumed in February 2007. Ever since, UNHCR has been extending its assistance for voluntary repatriation of registered Iraqi refugees within the framework of the “individual case management scheme”. Also since the year 2000, UNHCR has helped resettle in third countries an average of around 1000 refugees (mainly Afghans) every year.

One important component of UNHCR’s 2008 assistance programme was health care of vulnerable refugees. Limited financial assistance was provided to over 11,000 refugees suffering from life threatening diseases on a case by case basis including medical insurance for those suffering chronic/special diseases. A number of health awareness projects were carried out in different locations. UNHCR through an NGO named MAHAK, provided full assistance for treatment of 214 refugee children suffering from cancer. The planning figure and scope of activities in the health sector for 2009 remains more or less the same.

Two community based rehabilitation projects were commissioned targeting 800 persons living with disabilities. Health kits were distributed to refugees above five years of age and sanitary items to refugee girls and women of reproductive age. Other projects to improve the situation of refugees in refugee settlements and some semi-urban locations, such as improvement of water and sanitation systems, provision of additional classrooms and infrastructure rehabilitation were also carried out.

UNHCR also organizes and funds vocational trainings such as sewing, hairdressing, carpentery, etc. It also supports health and midwifery trainings. Provision of classroom supplies for identified schools in refugee concentrated areas, clothing and school kits for vulnerable refugee children are incentives to reduce school dropout rates. In order to encourage refugee girls to go to school, UNHCR has programmes to build additional classrooms for girls in refugee settlements and fund transport to and from schools.

UNHCR’s annual programme budget for the year 2009 is around US$6,600,000.

In addition, based on the specific needs of vulnerable refugees, UNHCR provides them with One Time Assistance. This amount is determined through need assessment and Community Integrated Social and Medical Assistance Programme guidelines.

Address: No. 3, East Emdad St., North Shiraz Ave., Vanak Sq., Tehran, 19917

Tel: (98-21) 8805 7201-11 E-mail: irnte@unhcr.org

Facsimile: (98-21) 8805 7212 website: www.unhcr.org