Taliban Says Over 40,000 Afghan Refugees Deported From Iran

Acting Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Abdul Rahman Rashid, stated that approximately 46,000 people returned voluntarily, while around 43,000 others were deported from Iran due to lacking legal documents for residence.

Less than three weeks ago, a military official in Sistan and Baluchestan province reported the return of thousands of Afghan refugees in just one day, solely through one Iranian border crossing.Parviz Ghasemzadeh, the commander of the Zabul border regiment, claimed that 4,767 Afghan citizens were arrested for reasons such as illegal entry, illegal stay, or expired passports, and were transferred to Afghanistan through the Milak border crossing in the north of Sistan and Baluchestan province.

According to the latest figures communicated by the Government of Iran to the UN's refugee commission (UNHCR), 762,000 refugees live in Iran, of which 750,000 are Afghans and 12,000 are Iraqis. Around 586,000 Afghan passport holders with Iranian visas also live in Iran.

The UNHCR claims that in 2022, the government of Iran undertook a headcount of all undocumented Afghan nationals in the country, including those who newly arrived following the Taliban takeover in 2021, through which some 2.6 million Afghans were registered.

According to official figures from Iran, 500,000 undocumented Afghans did not participate in the headcount and it is estimated that since the US withdrawal in August 2021, a total of 1,000,000 Afghans have fled to the country.