Afghans Make Up Most of Foreign Medical Tourists in Iran, Says Iranian Official

An official at Iran’s Ministry of Health said that Afghans make up most of the medical tourists of Iran's health sector. Hashem Daryabari, an official of Iran’s Ministry of Health, said that citizens of other countries are also among the patients of Iran’s medical centers.

According to him, After Afghanistan, citizens of Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, India, Tajikistan, and Saudi Arabia are in the rankings in this order.

Daryabari added that Iran is ranked 46th in the world ranking of health tourism.

He said that these people have mostly been referred to Iran in the fields of gynaecology, eye surgery, orthopaedics, cosmetic surgeries, cardiovascular diseases, general surgery, cancer, and other diagnoses.

Earlier, Iran’s Secretary of Health Tourism Council had said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign patients from Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain spent nearly 1 billion dollars as part of medical tourism in Iran.

He had said that the average expense of medical tourists is between 8 to 13 thousand dollars, and they spend four times more than other tourists in Iran.

This is while earlier Taliban officials in Herat said that on average, 120 to 140 corpses are being transferred to Herat per month from Iran.

According to these Taliban officials, the reason for the death of Afghans in Iran is mostly illness, traffic accidents, falling from buildings, and death as part of illegal border crossing to Iran.