UN projects up to three million Afghan refugees return in 2025

ISLAMABAD: Some three million Afghans could return to their country this year, a UN refugee official said on Friday, warning that the repatriation flow is placing intense pressure on an already major humanitarian crisis.

Iran and Pakistan have introduced new policies affecting displaced Afghans, with Tehran already having given 4 million “illegal” Afghans until July 6 to leave Iranian territory.

“What we are seeing is the undignified, disorganised and massive exodus of Afghans from both countries, which is generating enormous pressures on the homeland that is willing to receive them and yet utterly unprepared to do so,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Afghanistan Arafat Jamal said during a video press conference from Kabul.

“Of concern to us is this scale, the intensity and the manner in which returns are occurring.”

Over 1.6m Afghans have already returned from Pakistan and Iran this year, the large majority from Iran, Jamal added. The figure already exceeds the UNHCR’s initial forecasts of 1.4m for 2025.

The office of the High Commissioner now estimates 3m coming into Afghanistan this year, Jamal said.

The UN agency said over 30,000 people per day have streamed across the Islam Qala border into Afghanistan, with 50,000 crossing on July 4 alone.

“Many of these returnees are arriving having been abruptly uprooted and having undergone an arduous, exhausting and degrading journey. They arrive tired, disoriented, brutalised and often in despair,” Jamal said.

The United Nations has taken emergency measures to reinforce water and sanitation systems intended to serve 7,000 to 10,000 people per day, as well as vaccinations and nutrition services.

Many who have crossed the border have reported pressure from Iranian authorities, including arrests and expulsions.