Nearly 20,000 Afghans are crossing the Iran-Afghanistan border daily, following a sweeping crackdown by Iranian authorities that has led to the deportation of more than 1.4 million Afghan nationals since January, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The deportations have intensified significantly in recent weeks, with over 500,000 Afghans expelled since the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Iran last month. Many of the returnees, including families and long-term workers, are arriving at overcrowded facilities near Afghanistan’s Islam Qala border post in Herat Province—often with little more than the clothes on their backs.
The sudden wave of forced returns is worsening what aid agencies describe as one of the most severe displacement crises in a decade. Afghanistan, already reeling from a collapsed economy, widespread unemployment, and harsh restrictions—particularly against women and girls—now faces the added burden of absorbing hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals.
“I worked in Iran for 42 years, so hard that my knees are broken, and for what?” said Mohammad Akhundzada, a 61-year-old construction worker who was deported along with his wife and four children—all born in Iran. Speaking from a returnee processing center in Islam Qala, he expressed frustration at being sent to a country he barely recognizes. “We don’t have anything, and we have nowhere to go.”
The deportations are also cutting off a crucial lifeline for Afghan families who had relied on remittances from relatives working in Iran. With more than half of Afghanistan’s 41 million people already dependent on humanitarian aid, the loss of this income threatens to deepen the country’s economic crisis.
The influx of returnees is straining Afghanistan’s limited infrastructure. Housing, healthcare, and employment resources are already stretched thin, and aid organizations warn the current pace of arrivals is unsustainable without increased international support.
UN agencies and rights groups have called on Tehran to halt mass deportations and ensure due process and protections for Afghan migrants. Meanwhile, Afghan authorities are struggling to provide even basic services for the growing number of returnees, many of whom have no homes, jobs, or support systems in the country.
