RASC News Agency: In a stark reflection of the deteriorating humanitarian situation under Taliban rule, over 2,340 Afghanistani families were forcibly deported from Iran and Pakistan in the past 24 hours alone, according to Taliban-affiliated media outlets. The Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency reported on Tuesday, July 22, that these mass returns occurred through four key border crossings. Specifically, 44 families were expelled via the Torkham crossing in Nangarhar, 27 through Spin Boldak in Kandahar, 480 from the Silk Bridge in Nimruz, and a staggering 1,793 through the Islam Qala border in Herat province.
This latest wave of forced returns follows another mass deportation just a day earlier, when over 3,000 families were expelled from Iran and Pakistan. According to Taliban authorities, nearly one million Afghanistani nationals have been deported from Iran alone since the start of the current solar year. These figures underscore a relentless acceleration in expulsions an alarming trend that has prompted international concern. Humanitarian organizations and United Nations agencies have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the growing scale of these expulsions, warning that the return of thousands of families into a country already ravaged by economic collapse, drought, and systemic infrastructural failure could culminate in a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe.
Most of the returnees are thrust back into Afghanistan with no access to shelter, food, healthcare, or even the most basic necessities. They are often left stranded at border zones, where no infrastructure exists for temporary accommodation. Harrowing images emerging from these regions depict children and elderly persons living in makeshift tents or out in the open, exposed to the elements and deprived of dignity. The crisis is exacerbated by the Taliban’s systematic failure to address the needs of returnees or even to acknowledge the gravity of the unfolding disaster. The regime’s focus remains fixated on restricting freedoms particularly those of women rather than investing in the urgent socio-economic recovery of the country. The Taliban’s draconian policies have left millions of Afghanistani citizens without access to essential services, while simultaneously fueling desperation and triggering renewed waves of migration.
The intensifying clampdown on civil liberties, the suffocation of independent media, and intrusive surveillance have created an unbearable atmosphere of fear. For many, life under Taliban control has become so untenable that fleeing the country despite the risks is seen as the only viable option. The choice faced by millions of Afghanistani citizens is no longer between staying or leaving, but between suffering in silence or escaping at any cost. As deportations surge and no cohesive resettlement strategy is in place, Afghanistan now teeters on the edge of a reverse migration crisis an exodus in reverse, where citizens are forcibly sent back into a nation unprepared to receive them. With international aid dwindling and the Taliban incapable of governance beyond repression, Afghanistan may soon witness one of the worst silent humanitarian implosions of our time.
By failing to plan, prepare, or even recognize the urgency of the crisis, the Taliban regime continues to expose the population to structural collapse. Their incompetence and obsession with authoritarian control have turned Afghanistan into a land not only of suffering, but of despair.
