TEHRAN, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian police forces have arrested 120 Afghan nationals who were illegally residing in Iranshahr County in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, the official news agency IRNA reported on Friday.
Upon report by citizens, special police teams rushed to the area and arrested the illegal immigrants, the IRNA quoted the county's police commander, Mehdi Rashnoudi, as saying.
In remarks on Thursday, border police commander of the northeastern Khorasan Razavi province, Majid Shoja, said close to 8,000 Afghan immigrants, who entered Iran illegally over the preceding days, had been deported to their home country.
He added that they had been handed over to the Afghan authorities through the Dogharon and Taybad border crossings, without specifying the date of their repatriation.
Last month, Javad Khani, an official with the National Organization for Migration of the Interior Ministry, told local media that nearly 450,000 unregistered Afghans had been sent back to their own country. ■
