Over Iran’s troubled borders

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 35

Over Iran’s troubled borders

Jane Smyth, of Christchurch, describes the hazards of border crossing in Iran.

Travellers lucky enough to get a visa for Iran may not be surprised at the delays and bureaucratic formalities they face on arrival. The Western media prepares most of us to expect difficulties.

Overseas travellers coming and going through Tehran’s Mehrbad international airport can take several hours to clear customs and immigration.

Locals can take up to a day; a delay made all the more unpleasant if their passport doesn’t carry a stamp declaring they have deposited a 50,000 Rials (SNZI43O) refundable departure tax in

Iran’s Bank Meili before leaving. It is not uncommon for travellers to have to pay again — if they can’t they quite simply cannot leave.

The land border between Iran and Turkey can take up to five days to cross although three is usual. The delay can lead to tensions.

An argument between two busloads of Iranian tourists trying to get through customs at the same time led to shoving, shouting, fistfights, and the eventual intervention

of armed guards to break it up. If you are a foreigner heading west on an Iranian bus you have three choices — arrive at the border at least three days before your visa expires (not an easy task if you only have a five-day transit visa); go it alone once you arrive (foreigners can get through in about half a day if they’re by themselves); or take your chances if your visa runs out before you get through and hope no one

notices. This journalist sat at the border for five days hoping the Revolutionary Guards or border officials wouldn’t throw her in goal and throw away the key. Someone noticed the expired visa, but it wasn’t the end of the world. (Other travellers are not so lucky). Mr John Wood, the New Zealand ambassador to Iran, remembers two young New Zealand women who left through the Irano-Turkish border, blundered back into the country by mistake, were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards, and were locked up for 10 days.