Afghan refugees forced to return face uncertain future

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Afghan refugees forced to return face uncertain future

In the month of April, more than 280,000 Afghans were pressured to return home or were deported from Pakistan and Iran. Many arrived with nothing and urgently need help to restart their lives.

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By Faramarz Barzin in Torkham, Afghanistan

5 May 2025 Also available in:

A man with a grey beard wearing a traditional pakol or rolled-up cap sits in a large, open-sided reception centre holding a young boy on his lap as other family members sit behind him

Ezatullah, 45, sits with his family at a UNHCR facility in Samarkhail, Afghanistan, after recently returning to the country from Pakistan.

The Torkham border connecting Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province is usually bustling with traders and travelers, but in recent weeks the Afghanistan side has filled with tens of thousands of exhausted and anxious Afghan families returning from Pakistan.

Most have arrived at Torkham and other border points after being forced or pressured to return following the resumption of Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, originally launched in late 2023. In April alone, some 144,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan, including nearly 30,000 who were deported. Many are arriving to a country they left decades ago, or have never known, with few belongings and no idea what their future holds.

Ezatullah, 45, crossed the Torkham border into Afghanistan recently with his wife and seven children. “They told us to leave urgently,” he said. “All of our belongings were left behind; everything was lost. We now have nothing.”

He was born in Pakistan and spent his entire life there, earning a modest living as a labourer in Rawalpindi. He has no idea where he and his family will go or how he will care for his children in a country where unemployment and poverty have surged in recent years, leaving half the population dependent on aid to meet their basic needs.

He has no relatives he can rely on in Afghanistan and is indebted from a business loan he took out when he returned briefly 10 years ago. The small amount of emergency financial support he received at the border from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR – reduced due to funding gaps – will go towards repaying his debt and buying some food. There will not be enough left over for rent or transport.

A man wearing a traditional pakol or rolled-up cap receives a document from a woman sitting behind a desk with other colleagues with UNHCR logos on the walls behind her.

Ezatullah is issued with paperwork by a member of staff at a UNHCR centre in Samarkhail before receiving modest financial support and other assistance.

A group of 17 mostly women and children stand in front of a fenced area of dirt ground containing blue and red coloured rocks and other objects while listening to a man wearing a blue lanyard speak.

Ezatullah and his family participate in a mine risk education session.

Besides wondering where his family will live, his biggest worry is for his children. “My children need care. God is their ultimate protector, but I am their caretaker on this earth. If I can’t provide for them, it will be very painful,” he said.

“I want my children to study, to become knowledgeable people. If this wish of mine comes true, what more could I ask for in this world?” he added.

Afghans are also being deported or facing pressure to leave Iran. Between them, Pakistan and Iran have been hosting the vast majority of the region’s 5.25 million Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers for decades, but both countries have seen growing negative sentiment towards Afghans amid economic downturns.

Earlier this week, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said the arrival of more than a quarter of a million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran in one month alone threatened to push Afghanistan into “an even deeper humanitarian crisis” and that “forcing or putting pressure on Afghans to return is unsustainable and could destabilize the region.”

UNHCR has expressed particular concern about the situation of Afghan women and girls forced to return to a country where they face increasing restrictions on their rights to work, get an education or move freely.

Asma, a 40-year-old mother of two daughters, went to Pakistan in 2021 to get treatment for cancer. When it became too expensive to travel back and forth from her home in Mazar-e-Sharif, she gave up her job as a teacher and moved to Peshawar with her family. She still had one year of treatment left when her husband was detained by the police, and they were told to leave. There was no time or money to transport their belongings.

“Once before, we sold all our household belongings in Afghanistan, and now we had to leave everything behind in Pakistan,” she said. “We have no place to stay and nothing at all.”

A woman wearing a blue headscarf and floral facemask sits on a blue plastic chair inside a large rub hall tent.

Asma, a 40-year-old mother of two, recently returned with her family to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where she had sought cancer treatment.

Two men kneel down inside a large tent to speak to a seated woman flanked by two girls.

UNHCR's Representative in Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal (left), and a staff member from local partner Wadan speak to Asma (right) at a reception facility near the border at Torkham.

Her relatives in Mazar-e-Sharif are struggling themselves and cannot help them. “I worry that my children might fall behind in their education,” she said.

UNHCR is working with its partners to help returning families with emergency financial support so they can pay for food and transport, but amid severe funding cuts, more international support is needed to provide additional assistance, such as specialized support to women and children at risk, health-care services, legal assistance and help with reintegration.

UNHCR is appealing for $71 million to respond to the needs of returnees over the next nine months.

“The lives of millions of Afghans are hanging by a thread,” said UNHCR’s Representative in Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal. “Greater international support over the next days and weeks will be critical to respond to this crisis.”