RASC News Agency: Data gathered from reports by Bakhtar News Agency, under Taliban administration, indicates that Iran and Pakistan have expelled 1,239 Afghanistani migrant families in the past week November 1–8. According to the reports, Iran forcibly or voluntarily deported 942 families, while Pakistan expelled an additional 297 families. In the last seven days alone, 129 families returned through the Torkham border crossing, and 168 families crossed back into Afghanistan via Spin Boldak. Meanwhile, 364 families re-entered through the Silk Bridge border in Nimroz, and 578 families returned through Islam Qala.
This follows a similar wave of expulsions the prior week, when Iran and Pakistan together deported 1,403 Afghanistani families. Naderyar Ahmadi, an advisor to Iran’s Ministry of Interior and head of the Citizens and Foreign Migrants Affairs Center, has stated that the repatriation of “unauthorized” individuals is a central element of Iran’s migration policy this year. Ahmadi highlighted that the Dogharoun border is the primary eastern crossing through which Afghanistani migrants are deported.
Pakistan has also intensified its “forced” deportations of Afghanistani migrants. It is important to note that since the Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghanistanis have fled, driven by a combination of fears ranging from Taliban repression to poverty, joblessness, ethnic and linguistic discrimination, religious persecution, and widespread social and economic disenfranchisement.
