Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.16
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Some 1.7 million foreign nationals from four countries are currently working in Iran, the Mehr News agency reported on Dec. 16, citing latest official statistics.
The foreign laborers come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Iran's labor minister Ali Rabi'ee has put the number of foreign workers at over 2 million.
Based on the latest official poll in the Iranian year 1390 (March 2011-March 2012), more than 1.688 million foreigners are working in Iran. Of them 1.452 million, equaling 86 percent, are Afghan nationals.
Most of the foreign workers are residing in Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, and Isfahan provinces.
On Dec. 2, Mehr reported that more than 300,000 foreign workers have entered Iran since the year 1390.
Rabi'ee has said that the foreign workers in Iran are employed in uncomplicated and unprofessional jobs, while the unemployment crisis in Iran is related to university graduates.
The minister has said that the foreign workers have even occupied many jobs in villages, as Iranian workers are disinclined to do low-paid jobs.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said in a report on his first 100 days in office that some six million people in the country are unemployed.
On Oct. 25, the head of Statistical Center of Iran said that Iran's unemployment has turned into a crisis.
"The country's youth unemployment rate is currently around 26 per cent," the Mehr News Agency quoted Adel Azar as saying.
"The country's total unemployment rate is 12.2 per cent," he added.
"Once a country's youth unemployment doubles the total unemployment rate, the country has entered into an unemployment crisis," Azar explained.
Edited by C.N.