The Taliban, which controls the government in Afghanistan, announced that both Pakistan and Iran have forcibly returned approximately 400,000 Afghan refugees to the country since the beginning of this year, according to Voice of America. The Taliban government stated that the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees from neighboring countries is ongoing, with about 2,000 people arriving daily.
Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, spokesperson for the Taliban's Commission for Assisting Returnees and Resettlement, stated, "The neighboring countries have forcibly deported more than 400,000 refugees since the start of 2024, with Pakistan accounting for 75 percent of the deportations." Taliban officials condemned the deportation of Afghan migrants by Iran and Pakistan and called for "better coordination" regarding the return of displaced families in accordance with international laws, considering the conditions in Afghanistan.
Tehran and Islamabad insist that the deportation campaigns target only unregistered Afghan migrants, in accordance with laws applied in many countries around the world. Pakistan officially began its campaign against illegal foreign residents, including Afghans, last October, accusing them of being "responsible for the rise in terrorist activities" in the country. Since then, nearly 600,000 Afghans have returned home, with Pakistani officials claiming that "more than 95 percent" of them returned voluntarily.
Islamabad has repeatedly clarified that its campaign does not target the officially stated 1.4 million Afghan refugees hosted in the country, nor does it target nearly 800,000 migrants holding Afghan nationality cards. United Nations estimates indicate that over 1.5 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran since January 2023, including those who returned voluntarily.
On Monday, the United Nations confirmed that more than half of the population in Afghanistan (23.7 million people, including 9.2 million children) are in need of humanitarian assistance. It noted that it has requested approximately $3 billion in funding to support humanitarian programs in Afghanistan in 2024, stating that it has received 20 percent of the required amounts, which hinders relief activities in the country, where 48 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Observers attribute the decline in aid to several reasons, including the comprehensive restrictions imposed by the Taliban on Afghan women's rights to education and work.
