4 years since Taliban took Kabul, millions of Afghans have been sent back

Over the course of the past four years since the Taliban took control of Kabul, plunging Afghanistan into a humanitarian crisis and stripping away women's rights, millions of Afghans who initially fled have now been expelled from Iran and Pakistan, according to the United Nations. 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. Some have never set foot in Afghanistan, while others haven't been in the country since fleeing it decades ago, said Arafat Jamal, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Afghanistan. Russia became the first country to