Thousands of Afghans return home from Iran amid war, economic crisis

Thousands of Afghans are returning home from Iran amid fighting, soaring prices and the collapse of the Iranian rial, which has wiped out savings and left many without work.

Many returnees said they had been unemployed for months and were struggling with rapidly rising living costs before deciding to leave Iran, Reuters reports.

Iran’s economic pressures have intensified amid tighter sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade that has disrupted the country’s crude oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz. Consumer prices have risen by nearly 90% year on year, according to Iran’s Statistical Centre, while food inflation has reached almost 130%, making basic goods such as bread and milk increasingly unaffordable.

Only 29% of Afghans who recently returned from Iran said they still had savings, according to surveys by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Their average income had fallen by nearly one-third from pre-crisis levels.

More than 2 million Afghans have left Iran over the past two years, according to UN Refugee Agency data. Most were deported or pressured to leave by Iranian authorities before the latest wave of returns linked to the war.

Forced deportation remains a major reason for Afghans leaving Iran, with unaccompanied men having long been a primary focus of Iranian authorities. However, returnees and IOM data indicate that women and entire families are increasingly among those crossing back into Afghanistan.

At Islam Qala, a major border crossing between the two countries, between 20 and 40 families, including women and girls, are voluntarily returning each day, Abdul Ghani Qazizadeh, a senior Taliban government official at the border, said.

By Sabina Mammadli