Afghanistan Peace CampaignBy Trisha Mukherjee
Over 1.5 million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan so far this year, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM). 700,000 Afghan migrants have returned to Afghanistan from Iran this year as of June 2025, according to the UN.
Russia became the first country to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s official government, but other countries have not done so.
Many of the returnees arrived at the Afghan border in buses “bewildered, disoriented, and tired and hungry,” according to Jamal.
Earlier this year, Iran ordered all of the estimated 2 million undocumented Afghans — out of the estimated 6 million total Afghans in Iran — to leave the country.
Since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, UN agencies have seen a large increase in the number of Afghans crossing the border from Iran back into Afghanistan, Jamal said.
This increase of Afghans leaving Iran came as the government of Iran intensified their campaign against Afghans, accusing many of them of espionage, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Some experts warn that these actions constitute a violation of the principle of non-refoulement – meaning not forcing refugees or asylum seekers to return to a country where they may be subject to persecution – in possible violation of international law.
In previous years, UNHCR could provide $2,000 in cash assistance to returnee Afghan families, enabling them to build autonomy and get back on their feet once they returned to their home country. In the past few months, cuts in foreign aid funding have decreased that budget to just $156 per family, “simply enabling a person to survive for a week or two on the basic necessities,” Jamal said.
Once inside Afghanistan, returnees’ face difficult conditions back at home. In addition to the Taliban restricting women’s rights by banning their movements outside of the home without a male guardian and by restricting their access to education past age 12, Afghanistan is also facing climate change and environmental challenges — around a third of Afghans don’t have access to basic drinking water, according to Unicef.
Zahra, a journalist living in Afghanistan who asked ABC News to use only her first name due to fear of persecution by the Taliban, said that Afghans have done their best to support returnees, despite having very few resources themselves.
“Even if I have one extra pillow, I should give it to others,” she told ABC News. “It’s enough if we eat lunch and skip dinner to give this meal to another.”
In the last several months, international humanitarian aid funding has been slashed by previously committed allies.
In April 2025, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction announced that it was cutting nearly all assistance programs to Afghanistan. Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the U.S. had been Afghanistan’s largest donor, according to SIGAR. Soon after the U.S.’s April announcement, the U.K. — another major donor to humanitarian initiatives in the country — reduced its aid to Afghanistan by 19%.
More than 400 health facilities, 400 acute malnutrition centers, and 300 clinics for survivors of gender based violence have shut down as a result, according to the UN.
Zahra said she has witnessed the devastating consequences of these facilities’ closures. She said there was a pregnant woman who needed medical help but couldn’t go to her local clinic, which had shuttered due to aid cuts. The expecting mother could not immediately secure a male chaperone to travel to the nearest open clinic, as mandated by the Taliban, Zahra said. As a result, according to Zahra, both the woman and her baby lost their lives.
Now, as millions of additional Afghans return to a country already facing multiple humanitarian crises, many international NGOs are operating with inadequate funding to address the many issues in the country.
UNHCR, for example, said it has less than a quarter of the funding it needs to address the emergency situation in Afghanistan and neighboring countries. Additionally, the International Rescue Committee has had to suspend some of their education services in Afghanistan.
These international bodies are calling for an increase in funding and support. “More humanitarian aid is urgently needed to protect and assist Afghans forced to flee,” the UNHCR wrote on its website.
“What’s happening in Afghanistan are crimes against humanity – crimes against the whole of humanity – which should shock our conscience and provoke action by all,” said Richard Bennett, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan. “It is not time to give up.”