Overview
- Pakistan and Iran intensified crackdowns starting in October 2023, driving large-scale expulsions of Afghans back across the border.
- In 2025 alone, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, which UNHCR calls the largest annual return to any single country on record.
- UNHCR reports more than half of returnee families lack civil documentation and over 90% live on less than $5 a day, with fewer than a quarter of women finding work.
- The agency warns returns during severe winter conditions are unsustainable, noting some returnees intend to leave again and others already have.
- Afghan officials and rights activists condemn forced deportations and urge voluntary, phased returns, citing abrupt removals and losses of property and livelihoods.