Afghanistan border ‘emergency’ as thousands deported from Iran: UN
In late May, Iran said undocumented Afghans must leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four of the six million Afghans living in Iran
Tens of thousands of Afghans streamed over the border from Iran in the days before a return deadline set for Sunday, the United Nations said, sparking an “emergency” situation at border points.
In late May, Iran said undocumented Afghans must leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four million people, out of the six million Afghans Tehran says live in the country.
Numbers of people crossing the border have surged since mid-June, with a peak of more than 43,000 people crossing at Islam Qala in western Herat province on July 1, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.
The UN migration agency IOM said more than 250,000 Afghans returned from Iran in June.
Unicef country representative Tajudeen Oyewale said this was an “emergency” situation in a country already facing a “chronic returnee crisis”, with 1.4 million Afghans returning from traditional hosts Iran and Pakistan this year.
“What is concerning is that 25 per cent of all these returnees are children … because the demographics have shifted” from individual men to whole families, crossing the border with scant belongings and money, he said on Thursday.