The return of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran is continuing. Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, said in a statement on Wednesday, November 4, that 642 people from 141 families had been forcibly returned to Afghanistan the previous day.
According to the statement, the largest group, 287 people from 53 families, came back through the Torkham crossing in Nangarhar, while 73 people from 15 families arrived through the Spin Boldak crossing in Kandahar. On the Iranian border, 58 people from 19 families returned via Islam Qala in Herat and 224 people from 54 families through the Silk Bridge crossing in Nimroz. The figures could not be independently verified.
On the same day, Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Muhammad Sadiq, met Noriko Takagi, the newly appointed representative of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Pakistan. Sadiq said they discussed the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the main challenges on the ground and the importance of stronger international cooperation.
Millions of Afghans who had lived in Pakistan and Iran for years have returned or been sent back in recent times, and aid agencies have warned that absorbing such large numbers is a major challenge for Afghanistan's struggling economy.