(Breitbart)—Nearly half a million Afghans have returned, either voluntarily or deported, from Iran since June 1, the United Nations migration office revealed this week as Iran’s deadline for Afghans to leave the country was Sunday.
Afghan refugees speaking to local outlets upon their return home described brutal treatment by the Iranian Islamist regime, including beatings, discrimination, and often losing their money and belongings. Many complained that they had passports or other valid documentation to be present in Iran; some had been there for decades before being forced out in the past month. Afghan media reported an increase in anti-Afghan discrimination in Iran after Israel launched “Operation Rising Lion” on June 13, which has no known ties to Afghanistan but was instead a response to Iran dramatically escalating its nefarious nuclear activities and resulted in the elimination of several high-ranking Iranian military leaders.
Iran was believed to have been home to about 4 million Afghan refugees before the waves of mass deportations. The government announced in March that Afghan nationals who were not legally present in the country would have until July 6 to voluntarily depart the country or face deportation. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a U.N. body, estimated this week that over 900,000 have left the country in 2025, but about half, 449,218, did so between June 1 and July 5.
“So far, 350,000 people have been transported to their villages and provinces across the country. These vehicles are used for the returnee transfers,” Hikmatullah Asifi, an official with the Taliban’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, told the Afghan outlet Tolo News this weekend. The Taliban, another official with the Ministry of Refugees said, are trying to transfer “roughly 2,000 to 2,500 people” a day away from the Iranian border towards less populated parts of the country.
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