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Arafat Jamal, UNHCR representative in Afghanistan. Photo: Courtesy — UNHCR
GENEVA:
Since the start of the year, some 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran, the UN announced on Tuesday, warning that the escalation of the war in the Middle East risked increasing this figure.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers appear to have increased since the Middle East erupted on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched a series of strikes against Iran, and Tehran responded with drone and missile strikes against Israeli and American interests throughout the region.
Since then, some 1,700 returns have taken place every day from Iran to Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala on the Afghanistan-Iran border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm”.
“The returns are orderly, but they are marked by tensions and apprehensions,” he said, adding that with hostilities escalating elsewhere, “I fear there is more to come.”
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He stressed that Afghanistan was “facing the consequences of what is happening with Iran”, as clashes broke out along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new war in the Middle East, he warned, “piles on top of an existing war on another border,” Jamal said.
The UNHCR stressed that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans have returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families now face cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, then displaced again within Iran due to the conflict, and now back to Afghanistan.”
“And upon their return to Afghanistan, the three displaced people enter a spiral of precariousness and uncertainty.”
Returns from Pakistan have meanwhile stabilized in recent weeks, with the main crossing point at Torkham remaining closed due to tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase significantly once the border reopens.”
UNHCR and UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, said on Tuesday they were working to strengthen their capacity to operate on and within Afghanistan’s borders.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
