Taliban: Iran Has Expelled 350,000 Afghan Nationals in Three Months

Taliban officials say that Iran and Pakistan have forced approximately 850,000 undocumented Afghan citizens to return to Afghanistan in the past three months. According to Voice of America, despite warnings from the United Nations that a harsh winter and an uncertain future await those being returned, the crackdown on undocumented Afghans in neighboring countries continues. Abdul Rahman Rashid, the Taliban's Minister of Refugees, stated on Monday that Iran has expelled 'nearly 345,000' Afghans since the beginning of Mehr (September 23) and claimed that the Ministry of Refugees has provided cash assistance and other urgent aid to each returning family. Iranian officials have committed to expelling undocumented Afghan nationals from Iran, while Pakistani officials have reported that since the government issued an order to crackdown on all illegal foreigners, nearly 490,000 out of 1.7 million Afghan nationals residing in Pakistan have been returned to Afghanistan. Last weekend, Sarfaraz Bugti, Pakistan's Interior Minister, claimed that 'over 90 percent' of undocumented Afghans have either been returned or have 'voluntarily' returned to their country. In recent days, UN refugee agencies have reported a gradual decrease in the number of returnees from Pakistan, but it is expected that by the beginning of summer 1403 (2024), another 280,000 people will return from this neighboring country to Afghanistan. The Pakistani government has justified the expulsion of Afghan nationals as being in accordance with the country's immigration laws, stating that violators of such regulations face similar fates worldwide, but clarified that this program does not include nearly 2.3 million Afghan nationals with legal documentation, including 1.4 million Afghan refugees residing in the country. The World Health Organization warned last week that 'the vulnerability of returnees will be exacerbated during the winter, leading to an increasing demand for life-saving healthcare as the cold worsens.' The Taliban have established temporary camps on the Afghan side of the border where returnees can stay while waiting to be transferred to their main cities across Afghanistan. Executives have urged neighboring countries not to mistreat Afghan nationals and not to force them to leave. Islamabad claims that this year, some undocumented Afghan nationals facilitated a deadly wave of terrorism in Pakistan by carrying out dozens of suicide bombings, while Taliban officials have stated that they will not allow anyone to use their territory against Pakistan or any other country and condemned the expulsion of Afghans as 'inhumane.'