Refugees are seen on a truck near a makeshift refugee camp in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, Sept. 7, 2025. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
KABUL, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) — A total of 3,475 Afghan refugee families, totaling 23,336 individuals, returned to their homeland from neighboring Pakistan and Iran from Friday to Sunday, Afghanistan’s High Commission for Addressing Returnees Problems announced on Monday.
The returnees entered the country via key border crossings, including Islam Qala in western Herat province, Torkham in eastern Nangarhar province, Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar province, and Abrisham in western Nimroz province, the commission said.
According to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report released in early August, more than 2.3 million Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, amid ongoing pressures for undocumented migrants to return home.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation said in late July that around 6 million Afghan refugees — mostly undocumented — remain abroad, with the vast majority hosted in Iran and Pakistan.■