Tehran, June 18, IRNA � The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi praised Iran as a country which could be considered as a role model in offering healthcare and education to refugees.


He made the remarks here on Saturday in a meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

During the meeting, Zarif stressed that despite hosting a community of three million refugees in the past three decades, Iran received but small assistance from international bodies.

He called for increasing investment in Afghanistan to prepare the ground for return of refugees to their homeland.

Referring to the presence of both legal and illegal refugees in Iran, the foreign minister said Iran has always tried to provide good facilities to refugees especially by offering education to them which has cost the county a huge sum of money.

He said there has been no enough investment in this area so far and urged more work to be done in this connection.

Zarif further said Iran has already conducted a number of economic development projects like in Chabahar and providing of drinking water to Afghanistan which have resulted in more employment opportunities in Afghanistan.

The UNHCR official said Iran has spent much on refugee services especially on education and healthcare.

He said he was taken by surprise by the steadily growing volume of services rendered to refugees in Iran.

By IRNA