DUBAI: Afghan refugees are returning in their thousands — few of them by choice or with a destination in mind. Many of the youngest have never set foot in Afghanistan before. Others are returning to find their homes and livelihoods no longer exist.
What were once considered places of refuge from the unrelenting turmoil back home, neighboring states are now expelling Afghans in waves of forced returns that are pushing crisis-wracked Afghanistan to the brink.
According to Babar Baloch, global spokesperson for the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, more than 2.1 million Afghans have returned or been forced back to Afghanistan this year alone, including 1.6 million from Iran and more than 352,000 from Pakistan.
Sami Fakhouri, head of delegation for Afghanistan at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, witnessed the impact first-hand.
“We are anticipating that an additional 1 million people, possibly more, may return from Iran to Afghanistan by the end of this year,” he told a briefing in Geneva. “The majority didn’t have a say in coming back. They were put on buses and driven to the border.”
