'Exhausted, hungry, scared': Over 1.2 million Afghans forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, says UN

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Pakistani authorities have set a June 30 deadline for some 1.3 million Afghans to leave. Pakistan aims to expel a total of 3 million Afghans this year. read more
More than 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan so far this year, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Saturday, warning that mass expulsions risk destabilising Afghanistan's already fragile humanitarian situation.
Many of those returning have never lived under Taliban rule and now arrive to uncertain futures, often with little more than the clothes on their backs.
The wave of repatriations follows separate campaigns by Tehran and Islamabad to crack down on undocumented migrants, which have primarily impacted Afghan nationals. While both governments insist they are targeting all foreigners residing illegally in their territories, the scale and speed of Afghan deportations has raised concerns among rights groups and the UN.
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According to UNHCR, over half of the returnees came from Iran after its government imposed a March 20 deadline for undocumented Afghans to leave voluntarily or face forced removal. Iran alone has expelled more than 366,000 Afghans this year, including recognised refugees and those in refugee-like conditions.
Tensions linked to Iran's brief war with Israel have also contributed to the uptick in returns, with the single highest number recorded on June 26, when over 36,000 Afghans crossed the border back into their homeland in one day.
'Afghan families are being uprooted once again, arriving with scant belongings, exhausted, hungry, scared about what awaits them in a country many of them have never even set foot in,' said Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
He said women and girls are particularly worried, as they fear the restrictions on freedom of movement and basic rights such as education and employment.
More than half of Afghanistan relies on humanitarian assistance. But opposition to Taliban policies and widespread funding cuts are worsening the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations cutting back on basic services like education and health care.
Iran's attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, said Saturday that foreigners in the country illegally should leave as soon as possible or face prosecution, state media reported.
'Foreign nationals, especially brothers and sisters from Afghanistan whom we have hosted for years, help us (so) that illegal individuals leave Iran in the shortest period,' the official IRNA news agency quoted Azad as saying.
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Iranian authorities said in April that out of more than 6 million Afghans, up to 2.5 million were in the country illegally.
Iran's top diplomat in Kabul, Ali Reza Bikdeli, visited the Dogharoun border crossing with Afghanistan and promised to facilitate the repatriation of Afghans, state TV reported.
Iranians have complained about the increasing presence of Afghans in recent months, with some accusing them of spying for Israel since the outbreak of the war.
Earlier this month, on the religious festival of Eid Al-Adha, the Taliban prime minister said all Afghans who fled the country after the collapse of the former Western-backed government were free to return, promising they would be safe.
'Afghans who have left the country should return to their homeland,' Mohammad Hassan Akhund said in a message on X. 'Nobody will harm them. Come back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace.'
On Saturday, the Taliban said a high-ranking ministerial delegation traveled to western Herat province to meet some of the Afghans returning from Iran.
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The officials pledged 'swift action to address the urgent needs of the returnees and ensure that essential services and support are provided to ease their reintegration,' according to a statement from the Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat on X.
With inputs from agencies