Nearly 6 Million Afghans Have Returned From Iran and Pakistan, UN Says

DID Press: Nearly 6 million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan in less than three years, the United Nations refugee agency said, describing the scale of the movement as unprecedented in recent history.

Pakistan has recently confirmed that 16,000 vulnerable Afghans have been temporarily exempted from deportation on humanitarian grounds, a move welcomed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

However, sources estimate that as many as 250,000 Afghans in Pakistan remain at serious risk of harm, including women and girls who could lose access to education if forced to return.

According to UNHCR figures, around 1 million Afghans have been forced to return from Pakistan and Iran so far this year. The returns come as the United Nations estimates that 21.9 million people in Afghanistan—nearly half the country’s population—will require humanitarian assistance to survive this year.

Charlie Goodluck, a UNHCR spokesperson in Afghanistan, told the BBC that the scale of the returns was unprecedented in recent history, describing the movement as an exceptionally large wave of returning migrants and refugees.

The UNICEF has also warned that around 1 million children in Afghanistan are facing life-threatening malnutrition, further highlighting the humanitarian pressures facing communities receiving returning families.