Iran and Pakistan Deport 800,000 Afghan Children in Recent Months

Save the Children reports that, on average, one Afghan child is returned from Iran or Pakistan every 30 seconds, at a time when one in five children in Afghanistan suffers from severe hunger.

In a statement on Monday, August 11, the organization said that since the start of 2024, 800,000 children have been sent back from Iran and Pakistan — double the number compared to last year. Nearly three-quarters of them came from Iran.

Thousands of these children, according to the report, return without a guardian. Many were either born in neighboring countries or have lived there for years. Save the Children warns that forced returns, especially of unaccompanied minors, heighten the risk of exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

Samira Syed Rahman, head of advocacy for Save the Children in Afghanistan, said the scale and speed of returns are unprecedented, placing the country on the brink of a full-blown humanitarian crisis. The organization has observed large families in major Afghan cities living in parks and open areas.

Some families who recently returned with young children have appealed for urgent assistance. Karim Mohammadi, who arrived in Maimana, Faryab province, from Iran with his parents, wife, and four children, now lives in a tent.
“My four children got sick on the way and almost died from the heat. We have no home, no shelter. When they were small, we sold everything here and went to Tehran, but they forced us out from there too. We went to the UN, but they turned us away. We came here thinking the Taliban help people, but they gave us no aid or ID cards. We have nothing, no food, no medical care. Our children are sick, but we can’t take them to a doctor. We are in an empty field, living in a tent. We have quadruplets who are still breastfeeding. We just ask for help,” he told Radio Azadi.

Earlier, the UN-Habitat program stated on August 8 that 60% of Afghans returning from neighboring countries are under 18. The UNHCR recently reported that over 2.1 million Afghans have returned or been forced back this year, including more than 1.6 million from Iran and over 352,000 from Pakistan.

Save the Children also noted that even before these mass returns, nearly half of Afghanistan’s population needed humanitarian aid. Severe funding shortages this year have left aid agencies unable to meet the growing needs, with children expected to suffer the most.

The organization urged the international community to immediately boost emergency support at border points and provide long-term assistance to returnees inside Afghanistan.

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