Pakistan, Iran forcibly deport over 10,000 Afghan refugees in two days
Kabul, Dec. 13 – Afghan officials said that in the last 48 hours more than 10,000 refugees were forcibly sent back from Iran and Pakistan.
Deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, who shared a report from the High Commission for Addressing Migrants’ Issues on X, noted that 1,939 families—roughly 10,043 people—returned to Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday.
The repatriated crossed key border hubs, including Islam Qala in Herat, Pul‑i‑Abresham in Nimroz, Spin Boldak near Kandahar, Bahramcha on the Helmand frontier, and Torkham in Nangarhar.
Fitrat reported that 1,464 of those families were settled in their home provinces, while 1,279 groups received humanitarian assistance, according to Pajhwok Afghan News.
Telecom operators also handed out a total of 1,626 SIM cards to the returnees.
He further added that Pakistani and Iranian authorities had forcibly repatriated 2,300 Afghan refugees on the previous Wednesday.
Earlier in November, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that Pakistan had detained a record number of Afghan migrants in 2025, with most arrests occurring in Balochistan and Punjab provinces.
A recent UNHCR evaluation highlighted that the bulk of detentions took place in 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 forces arrested 100,971 Afghans between January 1 and mid‑November 2025—an unprecedented rise compared with about 9,000 arrests in 2024 and over 26,000 in 2023.
UNHCR found that 76 % of those detained were Afghan Citizen Card holders or undocumented migrants, while the remaining 24 % possessed Proof of Registration cards.
The surge in detentions follows two 2025 government directives that ordered the removal of Afghan migrants from Islamabad and Rawalpindi and authorized police to arrest PoR‑card holders.
Humanitarian groups have urged Pakistan to ensure any returns are voluntary and in line with international obligations, warning that mass expulsions destabilize the border region and leave newly returned families without adequate housing, employment, or essential services.
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