KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban authorities report that nearly 12,000 Afghan refugees have been deported from Iran and Pakistan in the past four days.
In a statement on Saturday, July 6, the Taliban Ministry of Refugee and Repatriation (MoRR) announced that over the past four days, 10,645 Afghan refugees were expelled from Iran and 1,352 from Pakistan through multiple crossing points.
“781 migrants returned via the Torkham crossing point, and 571 through Spin Boldak. Meanwhile, 7,125 migrants entered the country through the Islam Qala crossing point in Herat, and 3,520 returned through the Silk Bridge border border in Nimroz,” the Taliban statement detailed.
The Taliban ministry further stated that after registering these individuals, they were referred to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to receive assistance.
For decades, Afghanistan’s western and southern neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, have hosted millions of Afghan refugees fleeing conflict, political instability, and economic hardship in their homeland.
According to the UN, Iran currently hosts approximately 4.5 million Afghan refugees, while Pakistan hosts around 3.2 million, predominantly women and children, totaling approximately 7.7 million Afghan refugees in both countries.
The enforcement of anti-migrant policies and ongoing crackdowns on undocumented Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan have resulted in the deportation of more than 1.5 million Afghan refugees back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in recent years.
Islamabad views undocumented Afghan refugees as a source of insecurity and illegal activities, attributing the significant increase in security incidents in the country to their presence. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Pakistan has deported over 639,000 Afghans since initiating the crackdown last November.
Meanwhile, despite repeated appeals from human rights groups to halt the deportation of Afghans, Iran persists in arresting and deporting them to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Recently, Mehran Fatemi, the governor of Iran’s Yazd province, said that the expulsion of Afghan nationals from the province has reached unprecedented levels, with nearly 60,000 Afghans deported since 2023.
Upon their return, Afghans face increasingly dire economic, humanitarian, and health challenges, exacerbated by the Taliban’s resurgence and recent natural disasters. The UN reports that more than 23 million people, including over 9 million children, depend on humanitarian assistance this year.
