E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.2 page 13 inter-ministerial committee is aware that a number of Iranians living abroad are reluctant to return. Accordingly, one of the tasks of the committee is also to investigate the causes of the brain drain and it takes measures to reduce, and ultimately reverse it. The Special Rapporteur was told of recent efforts undertaken to attract Iranians, and that more and more had been coming back since the late 1990s. For instance, in the 1990s it became possible to buy temporary exemptions from military service. This affected about 30,000 Iranians who could therefore come back to their country to live for up to three months. An amnesty decree had also been issued for all Iranians who had left the country illegally in the past. More than 11,440 persons benefited from that amnesty. Seized family properties had been restored and those Iranians willing to return to their country could also benefit from a number of financial grants aimed at facilitating their reintegration. 45. Some observers feel that the pace at which Iranians were returning is too slow. The Government often is not keen to take back people who state outright that they had sought asylum. Emigration is unlikely to stop until adequate employment, coupled with more comfortable living conditions, becomes available. 46. Finally, the Special Rapporteur was also told that the inter-ministerial committee was also monitoring the treatment by receiving States of Iranian migrants, with a view to enhancing their protection. Reference was made to Iranians living in Western countries who were facing discrimination on the basis of their religion and citizenship. Mention was also made of an Iranian detained in Thailand for drug trafficking, sentenced to 100 years’ imprisonment. V. THE WORK OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS A. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 47. The Special Rapporteur met with the Chief of Mission of UNHCR in Iran, who stated at the outset of her briefing that it was the largest United Nations presence in Iran and the only agency with field offices outside Tehran - UNHCR had 9 suboffices and 11 offices dealing with the repatriation programme. UNHCR’s programme was largely implemented through government departments, public institutions affiliated with the Government, and a few local non-governmental organizations (there are very few international NGOs present in the Islamic Republic of Iran). 48. UNHCR has noted that the Iranian authorities no longer consider that Afghans should enjoy the same status as previously and was concerned at the continued arrival of economic migrants from Afghanistan. Whilst aware of the ongoing changes in cross-border movements, UNHCR had continued to advocate for the introduction of formal mechanisms to identify persons of concern to it. It had also drawn attention to the need to respect the voluntary character of repatriation and to take account of Afghanistan’s absorption capacities. 49. For the past two years, UNHCR had been actively facilitating the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees through the provision of information and a series of other activities. In two years, UNHCR had repatriated 660,000 Afghans. However, fewer returned from Iran