Since the beginning of 2025, Iranian and Pakistani authorities have forcibly deported more than 1.2 million Afghans to Afghanistan, the UN Refugee Agency has calculated. Human rights activists have called on Islamabad and Tehran to halt the deportations, noting that many returnees could face danger in Afghanistan.
Afghan refugees began arriving en masse in Iran and Pakistan in the 1970s, fleeing near-constant armed conflict in their country. As of the early 2020s, there were approximately four million Afghans living in Pakistan and six million in Iran.
Many of them have been living in these countries for decades, some were born into refugee families and have never been to Afghanistan in their lives. At the same time, for example, in Pakistan only one third of Afghans have received legal refugee status, the rest have only temporary documents or no documents at all.
Most Afghans in Iran and Pakistan work in low-paid unskilled jobs, face regular discrimination by the authorities, and have limited access to medicine and education. Yet even these living conditions are preferable to life in Afghanistan itself.
In 2023, Iran and Pakistan almost simultaneously launched campaigns to expel Afghan refugees. The coincidence was coincidental; in both countries they were driven largely by domestic reasons – economic problems and growing discontent among the local population. For the Iranian and Pakistani authorities, the fight against migrants became an easy and convenient way to boost their popularity among the population. In addition, the authorities accused Afghan migrants of having links with extremist groups.
Now the pace of deportations has accelerated. In Iran, the deadline for leaving the country voluntarily expired on March 20 (this “voluntariness” was rather formal, in practice the authorities pressured refugees to leave the country). In Pakistan, this deadline, which had previously been extended several times, expired on June 30. In addition, the departure of Afghans from Iran was influenced by the war with Israel: against the background of hostilities, 36.1 thousand Afghan citizens crossed the border on June 26 alone.
The Taliban, which seized power in Afghanistan in a 2021 coup, has publicly stated that it is ready to accept all refugees and declared that they will be provided with security. For each returning Afghan, the Taliban promises temporary housing, free transportation to his home province and 2,000 Afghani ($28) in cash.
Humanitarian organizations stress that funds to support the deported Afghans are woefully inadequate, primarily because USAID funding has been cut. The UN a few days ago said that the program of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan for the first six months of the year was provided with only 18% of its annual funding.
A separate concern for human rights activists is the fate of women and girls. Since the Taliban returned to power, higher and secondary education for them has been banned in Afghanistan. Women and girls make up to 70% of the people who are forced to return from Iran and Pakistan to Afghanistan.
