RASC News Agency: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has raised serious concerns over a dramatic surge in the forced return of Afghanistani families from Iran. According to the IOM’s latest report, more than 15,675 Afghanistani families were deported from Iran during the month of May 2025 alone a sharp and unsettling escalation of forced removals. Of this total, 11,201 families were forcibly expelled, nearly double the figure recorded in April. The report reveals a troubling trend: the Iranian government appears to be intensifying its crackdown on Afghanistani migrants, particularly targeting entire families. Between January and the end of May 2025, over 457,000 Afghanistani nationals were returned from Iran 72 percent of them through forced deportations.
Demographic data shows that 71 percent of those deported are men, 8 percent women, and a staggering 21 percent are childrenvmany of whom are being uprooted from educational and community life. The IOM, in its statement issued on Monday, voiced deep concern over the humanitarian implications of this mass displacement, noting the sharp 26 percent increase in family deportations in May compared to previous months. The trend is especially alarming given that, until recently, most deportees had been single, working-age men. Even more concerning, the number of undocumented Afghanistani families deported in May 2025 is three times higher than the same period last year. The IOM warned that such a sharp increase marks a dangerous turn in regional migration policy, placing thousands of vulnerable peoplecparticularly women and childrencat grave risk.
Further compounding the crisis is a new Iranian government directive requiring all undocumented Afghanistani nationals to leave the country by July 6, a move that could affect as many as 4 million Afghanistani migrants currently residing in Iran. This sweeping ultimatum, issued without any clear humanitarian safeguards, has drawn widespread criticism from human rights groups and international observers. The wave of forced returns from Iran comes amid a parallel campaign of expulsions in Pakistan, where over 180,000 Afghanistani migrants have been deported since April, according to IOM figures. The combined pressure from both eastern and western neighbors has created what the organization describes as an unprecedented humanitarian emergency, placing Afghanistancalready in the throes of economic collapse and repression under Taliban rule under further strain.
The IOM has urgently called on all regional governments to immediately halt forced deportations and allow only voluntary returns conducted in full respect of human dignity and safety. The organization stressed that until conditions in Afghanistan improve particularly under the Taliban’s draconian and exclusionary governance any involuntary return poses a serious threat to the lives and well-being of returnees. This mass repatriation crisis, unfolding against a backdrop of authoritarian governance, gender apartheid, and widespread poverty inside Afghanistan, continues to expose the Taliban’s inability and unwillingness to govern responsibly or offer basic protections to its citizens forcing millions to seek survival beyond its borders, only to be driven back into repression.
