Iran has released 52 Afghan citizens from Al-Ghadir prison in Zahedan, according to Taliban officials in Nimroz who said the freed individuals had faced detention by Iranian police for lacking legal documentation.
Yar Mohammad Haqyar, a Taliban official from the foreign affairs department in Nimroz, announced the release, attributing it to coordinated efforts by officials from the Taliban embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Zahedan.
In the tenth round of prisoner releases last week, a total of 200 prisoners were released from Iranian prisons, as disclosed by the head of the foreign ministry representation office in Nimroz.
The release marks the culmination of a series of phased releases, with 680 prisoners having been freed in the past months and handed over to Taliban authorities in Nimroz.
The trend of arresting and deporting undocumented Afghan migrants has been on the rise in both Iran and Pakistan in recent months.
In a related development, the Taliban-run Ministry of Refugees reported the release of 15 Afghan citizens from prisons in Pakistan.
This comes as over 1,600 Afghan migrants returned to the country from Iran on Monday, Dec. 25 as the mass return and deportation of migrants from the neighboring country continue.
