Pakistan, Iran Forcibly Deport Over 10,000 Afghan Refugees In Two Days | World News

More than 10,000 Afghan refugees have been forcibly deported from Iran and Pakistan in the past two days, an Afghan official said on Saturday.

Sharing the report of the High Commission on Immigrants’ Problems on X, Afghan government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said that 1,939 families consisting of 10,043 people returned to Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday.

According to the report, refugees entered Afghanistan through important border gates such as Islam Qala in Herat, Pul-i-Abresham in Nimroz, Spin Boldak in Kandahar, Bahramcha in Helmand and Torkham in Nangarhar.

According to Pajhwok Afghan News, Fitrat said that 1,464 refugee families consisting of 8,140 people were resettled in their areas, and 1,279 families were provided with humanitarian aid. He added that telecommunications companies distributed a total of 1,626 SIM cards to returnees.

He also noted that on Wednesday, Pakistani and Iranian authorities forcibly repatriated 2,300 Afghan refugees.

In early November, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that Pakistan had detained a record number of Afghan migrants in 2025, with the highest number of detentions reported in Balochistan and Punjab provinces.

A new UNHCR report said most of the arrests were made in Chagai and Quetta districts of Balochistan and Attock district of Punjab, reported Khaama Press, Afghanistan’s leading news agency.

According to the agency, Pakistani authorities arrested 100,971 Afghans between January 1 and mid-November 2025; This marks a sharp increase compared to nearly 9,000 arrests in 2024 and more than 26,000 in 2023.

UNHCR said 76 percent of those detained were Afghan Citizen Card holders or undocumented immigrants, while the remaining 24 percent had Proof of Registration cards.

The increase in detention of Afghan migrants follows two government orders directing the removal of Afghan migrants from Islamabad and Rawalpindi in 2025 and allowing police to arrest PoR card holders.

Various humanitarian organizations have called on Pakistan to ensure that repatriations are voluntary and in line with international obligations. They warned that mass deportations could cause instability on the Afghan border, where many returning families lack shelter, employment and basic services.