Beirut, Dec 21 (IANS): Iran’s announcement that it will grant a six-month visa extension to 450,000 Afghans is a helpful move to prevent their imminent deportation, Human Rights Watch said Sunday.

But the visa-extension plan is no substitute for an asylum system that will allow newly arriving Afghans to lodge refugee claims, the US rights body said.

An Iranian foreign ministry official described the visa extension plan as a reflection of Iran’s “brotherly relations” with Afghanistan.

The official said the Afghan government had agreed to devise an assistance plan for reintegrating the 450,000 Afghans when they return to Afghanistan.

Under the Iranian plan, the previously undocumented Afghans will be able to apply for temporary visas and work.

“The Iranian government deserves credit for sparing almost half-a-million Afghans the threat of imminent deportation,” said Patricia Gossman at Human Rights Watch.

“But the visa extension won’t remedy a broken asylum system that routinely results in the detention and deportation of unregistered Afghans without access to refugee status, due process, or an opportunity for legal appeal of their forced removal.”

Iranian authorities have previously extended the visas of several hundred thousand Afghans who have temporary residence status in Iran.