Child Refugees Innocent Victims of War in Afghanistan

October 2, 2000 - 0:0
TEHRAN -- The Afghan children refugees are main victims of war and instability in Afghanistan.
Many families, who had fled their homeland to take refuge in Iran, have recently returned to Afghanistan, leaving a huge number of others in the country.
In addition to other problems, the issue of education of Afghan children has turned into a plight.
Some 50,000 Afghan students enrolled in schools in northeastern Province of Khorasan for the new Academic Year, about 60 percent of whom are girls. They study along with their Iranian classmates.
The per capita education fund Iran has allocated to each Afghan student stands at some Rls.3 million, just like Iranians students.
Although the country has taken a great stride to help the innocent Afghan children, still there are 7,000 Afghan children in Khorasan who have not been enrolled yet.
The reason behind the delay is the parents' lacking enough residence documents.
However, since the parents are guilty for illegal residence in Iran and not the children, the officials should help the children not be deprived of education.
If temporary residence permit is issued for this number of Afghan refugees, the children can undergo education like other children in the world, and the burden of war will be less on their little shoulders.