UNITED NATIONS, United States, July  11, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Three million
Afghans could return to their country this year, a UN refugee official said
Friday, warning that the repatriation flow is placing intense pressure on an
already major humanitarian crisis.

Iran and Pakistan have introduced new policies affecting displaced Afghans,
with Tehran already having given four million "illegal" Afghans until July 6 to
leave Iranian territory.

"What we are seeing is the undignified, disorganized and massive exodus of
Afghans from both countries, which is generating enormous pressures on the
homeland that is willing to receive them and yet utterly unprepared to do so,"
the UNHCR representative in Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal, said during a video
press conference from Kabul.

"Of concern to us is this scale, the intensity and the manner in which
returns are occurring."

Over 1.6 million Afghans have already returned from Pakistan and Iran this
year, the large majority from Iran, Jamal added. The figure already exceeds the
UNHCR's initial forecasts of 1.4 million for 2025.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees now
estimates three million coming into Afghanistan this year, Jamal said.

The UN agency said over 30,000 people per day have streamed across the
Islam Qala border into Afghanistan, with 50,000 crossing on July 4 alone.

"Many of these returnees are arriving having been abruptly uprooted and
having undergone an arduous, exhausting and degrading journey. They arrive
tired, disoriented, brutalized and often in despair," Jamal said.

The United Nations has taken emergency measures to reinforce water and
sanitation systems intended to serve 7,000 to 10,000 people per day, as well as
vaccinations and nutrition services.

Many who have crossed the border have reported pressure from Iranian
authorities, including arrests and expulsions.