More than 1.2 million Afghan migrants have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan since the beginning of 2025, with Iran alone deporting over 1 million people in what human rights groups are calling one of the largest mass deportation campaigns in the country’s modern history.
The unprecedented exodus represents a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding across Afghanistan’s western borders, where tens of thousands of Afghans arrive daily — exhausted, hungry and often stripped of their possessions after years or decades living in Iran. The deportations have accelerated dramatically since Iran’s conflict with Israel earlier this year, with daily expulsions jumping from 2,000 to more than 30,000 during the 12-day war, according to United Nations data.
“Afghan families are being uprooted once again, arriving with scant belongings, exhausted, hungry, scared about what awaits them in a country many of them have never even set foot in,” Arafat Jamal, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press on June 29, 2025.
The scale of returns reached staggering proportions in late June and early July, with 51,000 Afghans crossing the border in a single day on July 1, ahead of Iran’s July 6 deadline for undocumented migrants to leave the country, CNN reported. Between June 24 and July 9 alone, more than half a million Afghans — 508,426 people — departed Iran, according to UN figures cited by CNN.
Iran justifies deportations as national security measure
Iranian officials have defended the mass deportations as necessary for national security, though critics say the government is scapegoating a vulnerable minority population.
“We have always striven to be good hosts, but national security is a priority, and naturally, illegal nationals must return,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, according to Reuters as reported by CNN on July 11, 2025.
Mohammad Movahedi Azad, Iran’s attorney general, urged Afghan nationals to leave voluntarily, saying through the state-run IRNA news agency: “Foreign nationals, especially brothers and sisters from Afghanistan whom we have hosted for years, help us (so) that illegal individuals leave Iran in the shortest period,” The Associated Press reported on June 29, 2025.
The Iranian government set a March 20, 2025, deadline for undocumented Afghans to leave voluntarily, according to AP News. Those who remained after July 6 faced arrest and forcible deportation.
Deportees report widespread abuse and violence
Afghan deportees have described harrowing experiences of abuse, extortion and violence at the hands of Iranian authorities during the deportation process.
Bashir, a deportee who spoke to CNN, described systematic extortion and abuse: “First, they took 10 million tomans (about $200) from me. Then they sent me to the detention center where I was kept for two nights and they forced me to pay another 2 million ($50). In the detention center they wouldn’t give us food or drinking water. There were around 200 people there, and they would beat us up, they would abuse us.”
The Center for Human Rights in Iran reported on July 9, 2025, that at least 70% of the deportees were forcibly removed, with approximately 25% being children. The organization documented cases where even documented migrants faced deportation.
“There are reports that even those with documents are being arrested and some have said their documents were torn apart by Iranian officials,” the Center for Human Rights in Iran stated in its July 9 report.
Legal experts raise crimes against humanity concerns
The systematic nature and scale of the deportations have prompted legal experts to raise serious concerns about potential violations of international law.
“Given the scale, violence, and systemic nature of these deportations — particularly if combined with beatings, property confiscation, and arbitrary detention — there may be grounds to consider them as potential crimes against humanity,” Saeid Dehghan, an Iranian human rights lawyer, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran on July 9, 2025.
Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on Afghanistan, condemned the deportations on social media platform X, writing: “Hundreds of Afghans & members of ethnic & religious minorities detained #Iran accused of ‘espionage.’ Also reports of incitement to discrimination & violence in the media labelling Afghans & minority communities as traitors & using dehumanising language,” CNN reported on July 11, 2025.
Afghanistan struggles to absorb massive influx
The mass returns have overwhelmed Afghanistan’s already fragile support systems, creating what aid organizations describe as a humanitarian emergency within a humanitarian catastrophe.
Afghanistan, where 70% of the population lives at subsistence level according to UN Development Programme data cited by CNN, lacks the infrastructure and resources to support the massive influx of returnees. Half of Afghanistan’s population already relies on humanitarian assistance, The Associated Press reported.
The UN’s 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan requires $2.42 billion but was only 22.2% funded as of July 1, 2025, according to UN News. This severe funding shortfall has crippled the ability of aid organizations to respond to the crisis.
“The scale of returns is deeply alarming and demands a stronger and more immediate international response. Afghanistan cannot manage this alone,” Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration, said in a statement reported by UN News on July 1, 2025.
Reception centers overwhelmed by daily arrivals
At Afghanistan’s western border crossings, particularly in Herat province, reception facilities have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of arrivals.
“There are thousands of people under the sun – and you know how hot Herat can be. It is quite dire. Last week was quite massive,” Mihyung Park, the UN International Organization for Migration’s chief of mission, told CNN on July 11, 2025.
The UNHCR has been forced to reduce its cash assistance to returnee families from $2,000 to just $156 due to limited funding, UN News reported on July 1. The IOM can only assist 10% of those in need because of funding shortfalls, according to a June 30, 2025, IOM statement.
Families torn apart by deportations
The human cost of the deportations extends beyond immediate physical hardship, with countless families separated and children’s futures destroyed.
Parisa, an 11-year-old deportee, told CNN on July 11, 2025: “We spent six years in Iran before they told us to apply for the exit letter and leave Iran. We did have a legal census document, but they told us to leave Iran immediately.”
Many deportees have spent their entire lives in Iran and have no connections to Afghanistan. Hajar Shadmani, a 19-year-old born in Iran, told Agence France-Presse in a report cited by Ynetnews: “We have nothing here. I love studying, but I don’t think I will be able to continue my education in Afghanistan.”
Mohammad Nasim Mazaheri, a student interviewed by Al Jazeera on July 6, 2025, said simply: “The deportations have torn families apart.”
Link to Iran-Israel conflict disputed
While Iranian authorities have attempted to link the deportations to security concerns related to the country’s conflict with Israel, critics say there is little evidence to support such claims.
“Scant evidence has emerged to support claims of Afghan migrants assisting Israel, leading critics to suggest Iran is simply fulfilling a long-held ambition to reduce its illegal Afghan population and focusing internal dissent on a vulnerable minority,” CNN reported in its July 11, 2025, analysis.
CNN reported that The New Arab stated on June 28, 2025, that three Afghan migrants — Hafiz Bostani, Abdulwali and Habibullah Jamshidi — were killed in Israeli strikes, but this represented a tiny fraction of the Afghan population in Iran.
International response remains inadequate
Despite urgent appeals from UN agencies and humanitarian organizations, the international response to the crisis has remained woefully inadequate.
The Central Emergency Response Fund allocated just $1.7 million to the World Food Programme for drought-affected families in Faryab Province, UN News reported on July 1, 2025 — a fraction of what is needed to address the massive humanitarian needs created by the deportations.
“Iran is casting out entire communities—men, women, and children—based on prejudice and politics, to a country where their lives and most basic rights are under immediate threat,” Esfandiar Aban, a senior researcher at the Center for Human Rights in Iran, said in the organization’s July 9, 2025, report.
As the deportations continue, Afghanistan faces an unprecedented challenge in absorbing and supporting more than a million returnees in a country already grappling with economic collapse, widespread poverty and the erosion of basic rights under Taliban rule. Without immediate and substantial international support, aid organizations warn, the humanitarian consequences will be catastrophic for years to come.
