UNHRC’s Afghanistan representative Arafat Jamal has said that a total of 5.4 million people have returned to the country since 2023. Most of this exodus was reported from Iran and Pakistan
The United Nations has said that Afghans returning home from neighbouring countries of Iran and Pakistan have pushed Afghanistan to the brink. The UN’s refugee agency has highlighted an unprecedented scale of returns in the past couple of years.
UNHRC’s Afghanistan representative Arafat Jamal has said that a total of 5.4 million people have returned to the country since 2023. Most of this exodus was reported from Iran and Pakistan.
“This is massive, and the speed and scale of these returns has pushed Afghanistan nearly to the brink,” Jamal said.
Pak and Iran send back Afghans
Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in October 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging those in the country to leave of their own accord to avoid arrest and forcible deportation and forcibly expelling others. Iran also began a crackdown on migrants at around the same time.
The crackdown pushed millions of Afghans, including people who were born in Pakistan, across the border to enter the country. These were people who had established businesses in Pakistan and Iran.
Last year alone, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, Jamal said, noting it was “the largest number of returns that we have witnessed to any single country.”
Taliban slams expulsions
Afghanistan, under the Taliban regime, has already been under dire economic hardships and the entry of some 5 million people has made the situation worse.
Already in just the month and a half since the start of this year, about 150,000 people had returned to Afghanistan, Jamal said.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have criticised the mass expulsions.
Afghan authorities provide care packages for those returning that include some food aid, cash, a telephone SIM card and transportation to parts of the country where they might have family. But the returns have strained resources in a country that was already struggling to cope with a weak economy and the effects of a severe drought and two devastating earthquakes.
With inputs from agencies
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