Iranian authorities are currently carrying out their greatest refugee expulsion campaign. From 1is As of June 28, 233,941 Afghans crossed the Iranian border to return to Afghanistan, explains to the France-Presse (AFP) agency on Monday, June 30, the spokesperson for the International Migration Organization (OMI), Ava Azeez Agha.
Over the week of June 21 to 28, 131,912 returns were identified by the UN agency. The first aims are the Afghan exiles, constituting the majority of nationals present in the Islamic Republic.
In recent weeks, the number of Afghans returning to their country has exploded: up to 30,000 returns in one day on the past week, says the OMI. Some exiles being even born in Iran or having lived there for several years are found in this situation. In total, since the start of the year, “ 691,049 Afghans returned from Iran, 70 % of whom have undergone forced feedback », the Avad Azeez Azeez.
The figure now falls between 6,000 and 7,000 per day, according to the UN and the Taliban authorities. An increase in departures is expected by these organizations in the coming days because the Iranian government ordered in June to ” Four million illegal Afghans “To leave its territory” until July 6 ».
More than 6 million Afghans installed in Iran
If the UN says that the recent war launched by Israel in Iran has accelerated departures, the fifteen Afghan migrants encountered by AFP ensures that the risk they have to be expelled has been their only motivation. More than 6 million Afghans are installed in Iran, due to the political and economic instability of their country. Nearly 2 million of them having a document authorizing them a temporary residence are also threatened with expulsion, in the same way as those undocumented.
These exiles now fear to dive a little more into poverty, following their return to Afghanistan. Even if the country is at peace, job prospects are skinny and the country remains in the second largest global humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.
Since the United States has ceased to distribute international aid on April 14, the UN and NGOs on the spot have struggled. OMI, for example, “Could only help 3 % of the return migrants on certain days of strong passages to Islam Qala [ville afghane à la frontière iranienne] »reports the UN agency.
The Afghan authorities, recognized by any country in the world and privately deprived of the international aid that the reversed Islamic Republic received, struggle to welcome the millions of Afghans of return. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, recently claimed from the Iranian ambassador Alireza Bigdeli “ A coordinated mechanism for a gradual return of migrants ».
Because if they have been driven from the east, Afghans have also been from the West and Pakistan, which, stuck in the political and economic slump, accuses these exiles of all evils. In total, since the end of 2023 and the first mass campaign of mass evictions in Pakistan, more than a million Afghans also had to leave Pakistan, and more than double Iran, for half of the children, according to the UN.
