Continuing Deportation Wave: More Than 1,000 Afghan Families Returned Yesterday

Photo: AFP

As the forced deportation of Afghan migrants from Iran and Pakistan continues, Bakhtar News Agency, the Taliban-controlled outlet, has reported that on yesterday (November 7), a total of 1,809 Afghan families returned to the country.

According to the report, these families entered Afghanistan through the Pul-e-Abreshm in Nimroz, Islam Qala in Herat, Spin Boldak in Kandahar, Torkham in Nangarhar, and Bahramcha in Helmand.

Two days earlier, nearly 2,000 other families had also returned, a trend that continues to rise daily.

Earlier, both Iran and Pakistan announced plans to deport hundreds of thousands of Afghan migrants by the end of this year; a decision that international organisations have described as a violation of human rights law and the principle of non-refoulement.

UN experts have warned that returnees, particularly journalists, women’s rights activists, and former military personnel, face risks of arrest, torture, and Taliban retaliation upon return. Women and girls, already deprived of education, work, and public participation under the “gender apartheid,” face further poverty, insecurity, and psychological harm upon forced return.

Amid ongoing poverty and repression inside Afghanistan, the mass return of thousands of families, especially women and children paints a grim new picture of a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.