Uncertain Fate of Unaccompanied Migrant Children; Temporary Placement Without Iranian Birth Certificates

The Welfare Organization of the country announced the start of a temporary placement scheme for unaccompanied foreign children with Iranian families and nationals. Saeed Babaei, the director of the Children's and Adolescents' Affairs Office of Welfare, also stated that according to current laws, these children still cannot receive Iranian birth certificates. Despite decades of uncertainty regarding the legal status of unaccompanied foreign children in Iran, Babaei acknowledged that there remains a 'neglected point' in the adoption law concerning the adoption of foreign children. He added that 'although there was a neglected point in the adoption law regarding foreign children, this issue has been considered in the host family plan.' According to this news and a report by ISNA news agency, the temporary placement of foreign children has begun in provinces where there is a concentration of foreign nationals. Under this plan, foreign children can be placed with both Iranian host families and families of their own nationality. Babaei stated that under this plan, institutions and centers for the care of children will be transformed from permanent residences into a pathway for placing these children with requesting families. In the language of the Islamic Republic officials, 'foreign nationals' usually refers to Afghan citizens residing in Iran. No precise and reliable statistics on the number of Afghan migrants in Iran have been published this year, but in January 2023, the director of the Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Affairs Office of the Ministry of Interior stated that five million Afghan citizens are present in the country. Previously, the repeal of citizenship laws for children with an Iranian mother and a foreign father also sparked a wave of criticism from media and child and women's rights activists.