KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has appealed for urgent funding to help thousands of Afghans forced to return from Iran and Pakistan, warning that its resources are running out.
In a post on X on Sunday, the agency said families face an uncertain future as they return to a country already hit by poverty and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
“Tens of thousands of Afghans are being forced to return to their homeland from neighboring countries, arriving in desperate conditions and facing an uncertain future,” UNHCR said.
“The sheer scale of these returns is creating a humanitarian crisis, and UNHCR urgently needs support to provide life-saving assistance.”
Iran and Pakistan have both stepped up deportations in recent months. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than four million Afghans have returned from the two countries in the past two years, in what it calls one of the largest return movements in recent history. It has warned that pressure on Afghanistan will increase, especially from Pakistan.
The mass return comes as Afghanistan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than half of the population — about 23 million people — need assistance, while women and girls remain stripped of many of their basic rights under Taliban rule.
The UN has warned that without urgent international support and regional cooperation, the situation could escalate into a wider humanitarian disaster with serious consequences for Afghanistan and beyond.
