TEHRAN, 12 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Hundreds of Afghans have been arrested by Iranian police in a crackdown against illegal migrants, according to press reports. The Iranian daily, Iran Emrooz, said on Sunday that legal Afghan refugees have also been arrested and that the arrests have been taking place in the eastern cities of Zahedan, Zabol, Mashad and Kerman over the last two weeks. Full report

BAM, 4 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - A year after an earthquake that killed at least 30,000 people in just seconds, and on the surface not much has changed. The mangled remains of a lost city are strewn across this once-fertile desert oasis. Debris, rubble and twisted metal girders are still piled high on every street and down every alley, almost untouched since the earthquake struck on 26 December 2003. Around them are date trees and a few half collapsed buildings stubbornly standing, precariously lopsided. Full report

ANKARA, 1 Nov 2004 (IRIN) - Cooler weather has resulted in a sharp fall in the number of Afghans repatriating to their homeland from Iran. "It's something like 400 to 500 [returns] a day," Xavier Creach, a spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN from Tehran, citing cooler temperatures as the primary cause. Full report

ANKARA, 21 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Twenty European news websites have expressed their concern at the recent imprisonment of five Iranian online journalists. They made their stand in a Reporters Without Borders (RSF) appeal over the crackdown against online media in Iran. Full report

ANKARA, 12 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Some 850,000 Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and Iran voted in Afghanistan's first presidential election on 9 October; a record in refugee election participation according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), who organised the voting. Full report

ANKARA, 29 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - With just 10 days to go to polling, preparations to give hundreds of thousands of refugees living in Iran the chance to vote in Afghanistan's presidential elections next month are proceeding well. Full report

ANKARA, 20 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will launch a project to establish an academy for migration and refugee studies in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Tuesday. Full report

ZAHEDAN, 7 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - Iran's border with Afghanistan is mountainous and rugged - a dry barren land that stretches as far as the eye can see. The only signs of life are the silhouettes of soldiers that dot the landscape, perched high on the mountain peaks. Machine guns slung across their shoulders, they are a chilling reminder of the danger edging westward towards them from across the border. More than 3,600 Iranians have been killed in gun battles with smugglers in the last 25 years and every year thousands of kilograms of heroin, opium and hashish stream through these porous mountain passes. Full report

TEHRAN, 2 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - One million Afghan refugees have officially returned home from Iran since the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) started its voluntary repatriation programme in April 2002. This means that the Afghan refugee population in Iran has been halved, with a million Afghans remaining in Iran. To mark the return of the millionth Afghan, IRIN spoke to UNHCR Resident Representative in IRAN, Philippe Lavanchy. Full report

TEHRAN, 30 Aug 2004 (IRIN) - Three websites with links to Iran's reformist parties have been blocked by conservative hardliners and several contributers have been arrested amid increasing crackdowns in Iran. Full report

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