Over 10,000 Afghan refugees were forcibly deported from Iran and Pakistan over the last two days, an Afghan official said on Saturday.
Sharing a report from the High Commission for Addressing Migrants’ Issues on X, the Afghan government’s deputy spokesperson, Hamdullah Fitrat, said that 1,939 families comprising 10,043 individuals returned to Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday.
According to the report, the refugees entered Afghanistan through major border crossings, including Islam Qala in Herat, Pul-i-Abresham in Nimroz, Spin Boldak in Kandahar, Bahramcha in Helmand, and Torkham in Nangarhar.
Fitrat said that 1,464 refugee families, comprising 8,140 individuals, were relocated to their respective regions, while 1,279 families were provided humanitarian assistance, Pajhwok Afghan News reported. He added that telecommunication companies distributed a total of 1,626 SIM cards to the returnees.
He also stated that on Wednesday, Pakistani and Iranian authorities forcibly repatriated 2,300 Afghan refugees.
Earlier in November, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) revealed that Pakistan detained a record number of Afghan migrants in 2025, with the highest number of arrests reported in the Balochistan and Punjab provinces.
A new UNHCR report said that most arrests were carried out in the Chagai and Quetta districts of Balochistan and the Attock district of Punjab, Afghanistan’s leading news agency Khaama Press reported.
According to the agency, Pakistani authorities arrested 100,971 Afghans between January 1 and mid-November 2025, marking a sharp rise compared with about 9,000 arrests in 2024 and more than 26,000 in 2023.
UNHCR said 76 per cent of those detained were Afghan Citizen Card holders or undocumented migrants, while the remaining 24 per cent possessed Proof of Registration cards.
The increase in the detention of Afghan migrants followed two government orders in 2025 directing the removal of Afghan migrants from Islamabad and Rawalpindi and allowing police to arrest PoR card holders.
Several humanitarian organisations have urged Pakistan to ensure that any returns are voluntary and in line with international obligations. They warned that mass expulsions could cause instability along the Afghanistan border, where many returning families lack housing, employment, and basic services.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
