Police arrest human traffickers in northwestern Iran

The Iranian police arrested several human traffickers in a border area in Northwestern Iran, a provincial police commander announced on Monday. "After receiving information from sources on the hideouts of foreign nationals in a border village, the issue was pursued by intelligence officers of this regiment," Commander of Orumiyeh Border Regiment Shahrouz Rahmani told FNA on Monday. Rahmani further praised the cooperation extended by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) to his unit in this regard, and said, "We identified and arrested 79 foreign nationals in a rural house with the help of IRGC forces." Last month, Iran's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Gholam Hossein Dehqani called on all world states to make efforts to prevent and uproot the phenomenon of human trafficking. Dehqani made the remarks addressing a meeting of the UN Commission on Population and Development in New York. The Iranian envoy to UN underlined that that the international community should take serious measures to prevent, fight, and eliminate all kinds of human trafficking. He added that the victims of human trafficking - especially women, girls and children - should be provided with necessary support. "The Islamic Republic of Iran calls on all states, the UN, and other related organizations to increase their measures in quantity and efficiency for tackling challenges that immigrants face during the vulnerable state of immigration, especially those displaced due to the foreign occupation and armed conflicts," Dehqani said. Dehqani noted that the Islamic Republic "categorically condemns" all forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, including religious intolerance against immigrants, especially Muslims. He called on countries, which are destinations for the immigrants, to eliminate all kinds of restrictions against the immigrants and not limit their communications and exchanges with their countries of origin. Dehqani said Iran continues to cooperate with countries and institutions concerned with immigration in order to resolve challenges facing immigrants and turn immigration into an opportunity for having a better future.