The Taliban said Thursday that more than 30,000 Afghan migrants were deported from Iran and returned home on Wednesday, June 25, in what appears to be an unprecedented single-day surge amid ongoing expulsions from the neighboring country.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, confirmed the figure to Amu TV.
Ahmadullah Muttaqi, the Taliban’s director of information and culture in Herat, earlier posted the same figures on X, noting that additional buses carrying Afghan migrants were still en route from Iran.
Taliban said the returnees would be relocated to their areas of origin within Afghanistan.
The scale of the deportation is highly unusual and comes ahead of a July 5 deadline issued by Iranian authorities, who have ordered undocumented Afghan migrants to leave the country voluntarily or face arrest and forced expulsion.
Iran’s national police command has previously warned that those who remain past the deadline would be subject to detention and deportation.
According to data reviewed by Amu TV from BNA, a Taliban-run state news agency, more than 5,500 Afghan families were expelled from Iran and Pakistan during the week leading up to June 26. Of those, 4,853 families returned from Iran, while another 700 were deported from Pakistan—both through voluntary and forced removals.
The Iranian government has cited economic strain and security concerns as reasons for the crackdown on undocumented migrants, while rights groups warn that sudden mass deportations could worsen the humanitarian crisis inside Afghanistan.
