GENEVA:

Nearly 150,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran this year, with the speed and size of the migration pushing Afghanistan deeper into crisis, the UN refugee agency said Friday.

After decades hosting Afghans fleeing crises at home, Pakistan and Iran have ramped up deportations and forced millions back across the border to a country struggling to provide for them.

“So far this year, nearly 150,000 Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan,” Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative to Afghanistan, told a press briefing in Geneva.

“The high number of returns already this year is concerning given the severity of winter, with freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall,” he said, speaking from Kabul.

“These arrivals come on top of already unprecedented returns — 2.9 million people in 2025, bringing the total to some 5.4 million since October 2023.”

Jamal said they were returning, or being forced to return, in extremely difficult circumstances.

Whether arriving at the frontier surrounded by family or alone, Afghan returnees must establish a new life in a nation beset by poverty and environmental woes.

“The speed and scale of these returns have pushed Afghanistan deeper into crisis, as the country continues to face a deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation — particularly for women and girls — a fragile economy, and recurring natural disasters,” said Jamal.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told AFP the number of returns was up more than 50 percent on this time last year, when just under 100,000 had returned.

Jamal said that, according to a UNHCR survey of returnees, many families said that members lacked civil documentation, and more than 90 percent were living on less than $5 a day.