Over 2,000 Afghans return from Iran & Pakistan: Are migrants facing persecution in these countries?

Over 2,000 Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan have returned home, although it is not clear whether they arrived back to Afghanistan voluntarily or were expelled from the two countries.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation said that 1,664 of these migrants came back from Iran while the rest from Pakistan.

Both Iran and Pakistan have been witnessing a surge in Afghan migrants owing to the Taliban’s harsh rule in Afghanistan.

In June, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s commission assisting and resettling returnees said, “The two neighboring countries have forcibly deported over 400,000 refugees since the start of 2024, with Pakistan responsible for 75 per cent of the deportations.”

Afghans in Pakistan

Some 600,000 Afghans have travelled to Pakistan since the Taliban took over and implemented their austere version of Islam.

Millions more came in the four decades before that, fleeing successive conflicts including the Soviet invasion, civil war and the post-9/11 US-led occupation.

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Pakistan, last year, waged a campaign to evict huge numbers of undocumented Afghans, as a result of which millions of migrants were forced to leave the country fearing arrests.

Plight of Afghans in Iran

Meanwhile, in Iran, Afghan migrants often have to face persecution. Local Iranians have engaged in clashes with Afghans over a number of issues.

Iranian media reports say that many Afghans have outnumbered citizens in impoverished areas of the country, fuelling anti-Afghan sentiments.

In fact, last year, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council banned migrants from living in 16 provinces as they saw a spike in their population.

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More recently, two Iranians died after they got into a disagreement over house rent that spiralled into widespread discontent forcing Afghans into their homes as angry Iranians incited violence against them.

Afghans first arrived in Iran as refugees in the early 1980s, later becoming economic migrants. Their population remained below two million until the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. Presently, approximately 780,000 Afghans hold official refugee status and are legally recognized.

With inputs from agencies