More than one million Afghans, including those born in Iran and those living in Iran for decades, have been forcibly returned to Afghanistan in 2025 as the Iranian authorities wage an unlawful expulsion campaign. The mass expulsions scaled up around the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran, with over half a million Afghans expelled since 1 June 2025, including several thousand unaccompanied children. Millions of others are at risk, including women and girls who must be treated as prima-facie refugees and not returned to Afghanistan where the Taliban are committing the crime against humanity of gender persecution against them.
