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Arafat Jamal, UNHCR representative in Afghanistan. Photo: Courtesy — UNHCR
GENEVA:
About 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, the United Nations said on Tuesday, warning that the escalating Middle East war risks pushing the numbers higher.
UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, said 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 had returned from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers appear to have increased since the Middle East erupted on February 28, when the US and Israel launched a barrage of attacks on Iran and Tehran responded with drone and missile strikes on Israeli and US interests across the region.
Since then, there have been around 1,700 returns from Iran to Afghanistan every day, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala, on the Afghan-Iranian border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm”.
“Returns are orderly but fraught with tension and fear,” he said, adding that with hostilities elsewhere escalating, “I fear more is to come”.
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He pointed out that Afghanistan is “facing the consequences of what is happening with Iran” while clashes have erupted along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new Middle East war, he warned, “superimposed itself on top of an existing war on another border”, Jamal said.
The UNHCR highlighted that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans had returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million who returned from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families now face cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning to Afghanistan again”.
“And when they return to Afghanistan, the triple displaced enter a spiral of insecurity and insecurity.”
Returns from Pakistan, meanwhile, had stabilized in recent weeks as the main crossing point at Torkham remained closed due to tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase sharply when the border reopens”.
UNHCR and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said on Tuesday they are working to strengthen their capacity to operate at the borders and in Afghanistan.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
