Iran Prohibits Employing Afghans Without Work Permits In Khorasan Province

Gholamreza Ashrafi, Iran’s Director General of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare of South Khorasan, announced that employing Afghans without work permits in the province is prohibited, and employers who hire foreign citizens lacking work permits will face fines.

The Mashhad Guild Office recently declared that Afghan workers are banned from working within a 3-kilometre radius of the Imam Reza Shrine. According to Iran's Bazaar News Agency, the fine for each day of illegal employment of Afghans is approximately $200 since the beginning of this year.

Ashrafi reported that in the year 1402 (Solar Hijri calendar), 260 joint inspections of foreign nationals were conducted in South Khorasan Province in collaboration with relevant executive agencies. Similar restrictions on Afghan workers are being enforced in other provinces.

On Saturday, the IRNA News Agency reported that Mohsen Sayyadi, the Director of Inspection and Supervision of Businesses in Mashhad, announced that employing Afghans within a 3-kilometre radius of the Imam Reza Shrine is prohibited. Sayyadi stated that "violation files" have been opened for 31 business units in Mashhad for employing Afghans.

According to the General Directorate of Foreign Nationals of Khorasan Razavi, after Tehran, which has the highest number of foreign immigrants, Mashhad has nearly 400,000 foreign citizens with legal documents and nearly 300,000 foreign citizens without legal documents. No international organisation has confirmed these figures so far.

Previously, the Director General of Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Affairs of Kermanshah Province announced the prohibition of movement, residence, and employment of Afghan immigrants in 16 provinces. These provinces include East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Gilan, Mazandaran, Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan, and Hamadan.