E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.2 page 11 Sephid Sang Screening Centre 32. Iranian authorities have established screening centres for illegal migrants who are arrested in the street. They are regrouped in those centres prior to their deportation if their situation in the country is found to be illegal. If they can provide valid reasons for their stay in Iran, a judge might decide to release them and allow them to resume their daily lives in Iran. The delegation visited Sephid Sang Screening Centre, located in Mashed Province. 33. Twenty-five people were living in the Centre at the time of the visit. Most of them had been arrested for crimes committed on Iranian territory and/or for not possessing proper documentation when checked in the streets. Officials informed the delegation that most of those arrested had been involved in drug trafficking, fights, theft and immoral acts. During their maximum four-day stay in the camps, they are interviewed by Iranian officials before being brought before a judge. 34. Very few women pass through the Centre; those involved in crimes stayed in the Centre while the Iranian authorities tried to locate their relatives before either releasing them or deporting them to Afghanistan. Iranian authorities informed the delegation that they were not allowed to release a woman if there were no male relatives willing to take care of her once she was released. If a woman is deported, Iranian authorities would not leave her on her own at the border, as they do for men, but rather put her in the hands of the Afghan authorities. 35. Street children and unaccompanied children are sent to juvenile centres while their relatives are located. 36. From 21 March 2003 to February 2004, about 8,000 migrants passed through Sephid Sang Screening Centre. Of these, 6,711 were deported to Afghanistan and 1,807 were released and allowed to remain in Iran. During their short stay in the Centre, they had access to basic commodities, health and food services. Information sessions on Afghanistan and problems associated with landmines are also organized for the migrants. 37. According to information received from migrants interviewed in situ, living conditions for irregular migrants are very precarious. Migrants nearly always live in working-class districts on the outskirts of towns or in remote agricultural areas. Most of them live with relatives from the same community and one person interviewed said that he was sleeping in the street. Their irregular status forces them to live in the shadows, performing work that Iranians do not want to do. 38. Some of the Afghans interviewed claimed that they had families in Iran and some of them said that they had been living in the country for over 20 years. None of them was willing to go back to Afghanistan. They were waiting for help from their families living in Iran. Many migrants told the delegation that if they were to go back to Afghanistan, they would try to return to Iran because they had no opportunities to earn a living in Afghanistan and the security situation was not conducive to leading a normal life.