Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi wrote on his Twitter account, “Dear Afghan citizens living in Iran are not barred from getting landline or mobile subscriptions.”
However, he added that some Afghans have crossed Iran’s borders illegally and do not have the proper papers. Thus, the illegal migrants and refugees “obviously cannot buy a subscription.”
For registering a SIM in Iran foreigners must provide the operators with their passport or resident permits, according to Financial Tribune.
According to Afghan Refugees and Repatriation Minister Sayed Hussain Alami Balkhi, some 2.4 million Afghans live in Iran.
Afghans fleeing war, insecurity, poverty, joblessness and other forms of social calamities have fled their country in big numbers for more than four decades. An unusually large number sought refuge in Iran including almost a million illegals who enter from the porous eastern borders in search of a livelihood and to provide for their distressed families back home.