As deportations continue, 269 families were repatriated to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan on Wednesday, Sept. 11, according to Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency.
The families entered Afghanistan through border crossings in the provinces of Nangarhar, Kandahar, Nimroz, and Herat. The report noted that 18 families returned via the Torkham crossing, while 39 families crossed the Spin Boldak border.
An additional 89 families returned through the Pul-e-Abrisham border, and 123 families entered through the Islam Qala border.
Some families deported from Pakistan alleged that local police confiscated their belongings before expelling them, leaving them with nothing upon their return to Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, more than 600,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan, according to estimates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Iranian officials, including Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the country’s special representative for Afghanistan, introduced a new plan to manage Afghan refugees during a meeting on September 3. Mojtaba Abdollahi, the governor of Iran’s Alborz province, stated that more than 50,000 Afghan migrants were expelled through the province over the past year. Iranian authorities frequently refer to undocumented Afghan migrants as “unauthorized foreign nationals.”
“We must counter anti-Afghan sentiment with proper public awareness, as the regulation of migrants is being carried out within a clear legal framework,” Abdollahi said, according to Iranian media reports.
He emphasized that while there is no specific stance on documented Afghan migrants, the Iranian government will continue to identify, detain, and deport those without proper documentation.
In the past five months alone, 27,915 undocumented Afghan migrants were deported through Alborz province, Abdollahi said, adding that the province leads the country in expelling unauthorized foreign nationals.
UNHCR estimates that around 4.5 million Afghan refugees currently reside in Iran, though Iranian media reports suggest a much higher figure. These reports estimate that as many as 8 million Afghan nationals live in Iran, with more than 4 million lacking legal residency documents.
The Iranian government has announced plans to complete the deportation of undocumented Afghan migrants by the end of the current Persian year, which concludes on March 20, 2025.
