‘I’ve never been to Afghanistan’: Six million deportees forced to start over under the Taliban
More than six million Afghans have been forced to return home from Pakistan and Iran since the Taliban took power in August 2021, in what the UN describes as the largest cross-border movement of people anywhere in the world. Many returnees, including some who were born abroad and had never set foot in Afghanistan, are arriving destitute at crossings such as Torkham, where aid agencies struggle to provide even basic shelter, and are being met by a country still under severe economic strain.
The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, says roughly a million people have been expelled this year alone, with both undocumented migrants and, increasingly, registered Afghans caught up in crackdowns by Pakistan and Iran. Many families report harassment, raids and arrests by Pakistani authorities, allegations Islamabad denies beyond calling any incidents "sporadic". The expulsions intensified after fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated last October, with both neighbouring countries citing security and economic concerns as justification for the returns.
- Over six million Afghans forced back from Pakistan and Iran since 2021
- Around a million expelled this year alone, UN says
- Returnees, some born abroad, face poverty and scant shelter on arrival
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Since 2021, when the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, millions of Afghans who had been living in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran have been sent back, in what the United Nations calls the biggest movement of returning people anywhere in the world. Some of those returning were born outside Afghanistan and have never actually lived there, so for them "going home" means arriving in an unfamiliar country. They cross at border points such as Torkham, often with few possessions, into a nation already struggling economically.
The Afghan Taliban government, Pakistan and Iran are the main parties involved, alongside the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, which tracks and assists those affected. Pakistan and Iran say the returns are needed for security and economic reasons, while many Afghan families say they have faced raids, harassment and arrest. Tensions increased after clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces last October, which was followed by a rise in expulsions.
This matters because it is one of the largest forced population movements happening today, testing the capacity of aid agencies and of Afghanistan itself to absorb huge numbers of returnees, many of whom have no home, work or family network to return to.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Pakistan and Iran can reasonably argue that no state has an unlimited obligation to host, indefinitely, one of the largest and longest-standing refugee populations in the world, and that decisions on residency and documentation status fall within their sovereign right to manage borders and internal security. Both governments point to strained public services, economic pressure and, in Pakistan's case, a rise in cross-border militant violence, as legitimate grounds for tightening enforcement against those without valid papers. From this perspective, an orderly, if firm, return process is a fair way to share the burden after decades of hosting, particularly as conditions in Afghanistan are said to have stabilised administratively since 2021.
The case against
Humanitarian advocates and refugee-rights groups counter that expelling six million people, including those born abroad who have never set foot in Afghanistan, ignores the reality that many have no home, livelihood or safety net to return to in a country still gripped by economic collapse and Taliban rule that is especially perilous for women, minorities and former officials. They argue that international norms on refugee protection and non-refoulement should constrain how and when returns happen, and that credible reports of raids, harassment and arrests suggest coercion rather than voluntary or orderly repatriation. For them, the scale and speed of the expulsions represent a humanitarian emergency that host states are obliged to mitigate, not accelerate.