Iran extends visas for 450,000 Afghan refugees due to be expelled

Iran agreed to extend temporary visas for 450,000 Afghan refugees who were due to be sent back home, an Afghan Foreign Ministry official said Saturday, dpa reported.
The six-month extension was approved after Deputy Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq visited Iran this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Serajuddin Seraj said.
Afghanistan has been struggling for decades to manage millions of refugees who have been uprooted by the country's conflicts. Hundreds of thousands of additional Afghans have recently become internally displaced because of ongoing fighting, according to the United Nations.
About 1 million Afghans have been living in Iran for decades with legal documents on top of more than half a million without documents.
Iran earlier had threatened to expel those living there illegally. Another 2 million Afghans live in Pakistan.