TEHRAN - Sharif University of Technology and the International Organization for Migration have reached an agreement to provide entrepreneurship courses to foreigners living in the country within the framework of the Sharif Talent Assessment and Redevelopment (STAR) program.

Rasoul Jalili, the president of the Sharif University of Technology, and Lalini Veerassamy, the chief of mission of the IOM, signed the agreement in a meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, IRNA reported.

During the meeting, Jalili elaborated on the STAR which aims at providing educational courses for foreigners in the fields of business, soft skills, and entrepreneurship.

In the first step, it was decided that the Sharif University of Technology would run a six-month educational course in the form of the STAR program for two groups of foreigners residing in Iran.

The first group includes those aged 12 to 18 and the second group people aged 18 and above.

Veerassamy, for her part, highlighted the valuable, special, and different services offered by Sharif STAR.

“We believe that the cooperation will empower the community of immigrants living in Iran and it can also be a starting point for developing joint activities between the International Organization for Migration and Sharif University of Technology,” she went on to say.

In May, Veerassamy said the services provided to immigrants in Iran are not at all comparable to other countries of the world, including Europeans, and unfortunately, these services for immigrants are ignored.

She also said the International Organization for Migration will make every effort to provide Iran with more support.

 “As long as I am in Iran, I will take the issue of immigrants seriously, and we understand that the Islamic Republic alone bears 90 percent of the problems of immigrants. We will do our best to allocate more resources to Iran and provide quality services to immigrants.”

In April, Veerassamy said the world should know the services that are offered to refugees in Iran.

“I believe that the world should know what Iran is doing for the people of Afghanistan and should know that all these services are based on humanitarian principles that the international organization encourages,” she added.

“I thank you for this responsibility and the actions and services you have provided to Afghan immigrants in this country over the decades.”

In October 2022, the Iranian delegation at the 73rd meeting of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner for Refugees said with the continued allocation of insufficient international aid, it is very difficult and almost impossible for the Islamic Republic to continue providing services to refugees and unauthorized foreign nationals.

Several decades of hosting refugees as well as undocumented Afghan citizens have created huge economic and social costs for Iran.

For this long time, the Islamic Republic has pursued this mission despite numerous economic and social problems caused by regional crises as well as illegal and unfair sanctions, along with insufficient international aid and mainly using limited domestic resources.

Iran is home to over 800,000 registered refugees and some 2.6 million undocumented Afghans. Many of the refugees living in Iran are second and third-generation, according to the UNHCR. 

MT/MG