Taliban Says Over 10,000 Afghan Refugees Expelled From Iran & Pakistan

According to numbers from the Taliban's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations, 10,273 Afghan refugees have been returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan over the past week.

Of them, 7,422 refugees returned from Iran and 2,851 from Pakistan.

Based on daily reports released by the Taliban's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations, these refugees had been expelled from the two neighbouring countries between June 8 and June 15.

Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees stated that children and women are among those refugees who returned from these two countries.

The ministry added that Afghan refugees returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham, Spin Boldak, Islam Qala, and Pul-e-Abrisham border crossings.

In recent months, the Pakistani and Iranian governments have significantly increased the expulsion of Afghan refugees from these countries. Some of the returned refugees from Iran and Pakistan reported that the police in these countries detained and imprisoned them before their expulsion.

According to some refugees, the Pakistani government usually imprisons Afghan refugees without legal residency documents for three months before returning them to Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, some Afghan refugees in Iran, in contact with Afghanistan International and through videos sent to the team, have claimed that the Iranian police mistreated them.

Pakistani and Iranian officials, following the expulsion of Afghan refugees, stated that the expulsion process only applies to those who do not have legal residency documents in these countries. However, some of the returned refugees from these two countries said that despite having legal visas, they were still arrested by the police and returned to Afghanistan.