Iran has been surrounded by civil and military conflicts for over 30 years.
The resource-rich country has hosted massive numbers of refugees from these conflicts and has requested additional help from the international community.
UNHCR and the Governments of Iran and Afghanistan have been actively promoting the repatriation of refugees for the past four years, resulting in the spontaneous and assisted repatriation of more than 1.6 million Afghans since the start of the project in April 2002. The majority of the Iraqi refugees residing in the camps repatriated spontaneously in 2002, leaving less than 5,000 living in camps in Iran.
However, the country still continues to host some 950,000 Afghans and 50,000 Iraqi refugees.
Under an agreement with UNHCR, WFP has been assisting camp-based refugees in Iran since 1987 to ensure that their basic food needs are met.
The Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation “Food Assistance and Support for Education to Afghan and Iraqi Refugees in the Islamic Republic of Iran” provides general food distribution to up to 38,000 Afghan and Iraqi refugees in fifteen camps. In addition, some 3,000 primary and secondary school aged girls and their female teachers in the same camps receive take-home oil rations on a monthly basis as an incentive for regular school attendance.
