Deadly attacks and fighting have scattered Afghans across the world. And with more than half of all registered refugees coming from just three countries, Afghanistan ranks second, with 2.5 million people.
Nearly one million of these refugees are hosted in Iran, where it is estimated that up to 2 million additional Afghans live undocumented, without any legal documents.
European Commission, Factsheet on Refugees in Iran
UNHCR Iran fact sheet
Kerman is among the Iranian provinces with the highest ratio of immigrants to residents. About 10% of the three million local inhabitants are Afghans. But some of these immigrants first settled in the province forty years ago.
It is estimated that around 130,000 Afghans in Kerman are undocumented, leaving them with few or no rights, regardless of how long they have been in the country. We met Saeed, who is 13 years old and was born in Iran. He is an undocumented child. This deprived him of the right to go to school until 2015, when Iran passed a decree that opened public schools to all refugee children. It was a milestone in dealing with immigrants and it gave hope to thousands of children who were then able to start learning.
“I can read anything, anything I want, for example traffic signs or doctors’ prescriptions at the hospital.”
The implementation of the 2015 decree began by guaranteeing undocumented families that the registration of their children would not trigger any deportation procedure. Then the schools had to be adapted to cope with the pressure of thousands of new pupils. It was then that the EU stepped up its financial support through its partners on the ground.
Oliver Vandecasteele is the National Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Iran,
“We have supported around forty schools in the country. This was mainly for the supply of equipment and renovations in order to reopen certain schools. This particular one was closed for several years. We also organized access to education programs to help children who had dropped out of the school system in previous years. They needed crash courses to integrate into school.”
The EU allocated almost €10 million in 2017 to help Afghan refugees in Iran. Commissioner Chrístos Stylianídis visited the country twice, stressing the importance for the EU of Iran’s support for Afghan refugees, especially as the diplomatic situation remains delicate.
Caroline Birch from EU Humanitarian Aid is positive about the changes that have taken place lately.
“I think things have changed a lot since the Afghans arrived over 30 years ago. And we’re not looking at basic survival now, the idea will really be to keep them enrolled in elementary school so they can consider going to high school and maybe even college.” .
The ministry in charge of refugees estimates that in the province of Kerman alone, 10,000 children are still out of school. Attaining the right level of education is one of the reasons. Saeed could register at his normal level after dating NRC summer courses. But financial constraints do the rest.
Fatemeh Sadat is Saeed’s mother. Even now that they have access to school, she still struggles with the financial commitments to send her children to school.
“Last year we enrolled them in 4th grade, they dated for a few months and then I had to withdraw them. It was because of the cost of transportation and school fees.”
But this year, things are working out differently for the family.
“Until today, we have not been asked to pay anything at school. I started working, I go to a pistachio farm, and my husband also works and Saeed asked to start working too. This is how he managed to pay for the school bus. Every afternoon, he goes to work in a motorcycle shop near our house from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The capacity of schools is still well below needs. The province of Kerman has totaled 30,000 registered in two years, of which a third are undocumented children. Classes now accommodate an average of 40 to 44 students, whereas they should have a maximum capacity of 25 students.
#Thousands undocumented #Afghan#refugees we’re joining #school since 2015 in #Iran. Access to #school in #Irannext week on #Aidzonepic.twitter.com/lpxzLXvXEw
— Monica Pinna (@_MonicaPinna) October 19, 2017
Hamid Shamsaldini of Bafia Kerman estimated that 1,200 lessons would be needed to place the 30,000 students in more acceptable class sizes.
We left Kerman to go to Zangiabad. The school complex here acts as a school hub for many isolated villages scattered throughout this desert region. Here the NRC has just completed the construction of a new school:
NRC country program in Iran
Olivier Vandecasteele showed us here how the NRC could make a real difference,
“There was a capacity problem here that we could solve by building this school behind me. We have built 10 classrooms that will allow 300 new students to access education”.
90% of the students at the Zangiabad school we visited were Afghans and half of them are undocumented, like Amir Hossein who is 10 years old and was born in Iran. Her grandmother is proud that after her many years of hardship, some of her 21 grandchildren can finally go to school.
“We came from Afghanistan 30 years ago, but a year later I lost my husband. I could not send the children to school. We had a lot of difficulties and sufferings. We were homesick, having no husband and no one taking care of us. My children were orphans”.
#aidzone return team from #Iran! Fascinating filming to document how #refugee children are integrated into the Iranian #schooling system pic.twitter.com/tbycLQ6JKM
— Monica Pinna (@_MonicaPinna) October 10, 2017
By enrolling, but also trying to keep undocumented Afghan refugees in school, the doors are now open to a whole ghost generation of Afghans, allowing them to fulfill their potential in society.
