News Center- 233,941 Afghans left Iran from June 1-28, most of them deported, as returns surge ahead of a deadline set by Tehran, the international Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday.

International Organization for Migration spokesperson Avand Azeez Agha told AFP that 131,912 Afghans left Iran in the week of June 21-28 alone.

Since January, 691,049 Afghans have returned, 70 percent of whom were forcibly sent back, Avand Azeez Agha said.

For several days last week, the number reached 30,000 per day, the IOM said, with numbers expected to increase ahead of the deadline.

Over 1.2 million Afghans have returned or been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan in 2025, worsening the already desperate situation inside Afghanistan, the U.N.'s refugee agency UNHCR said in a press release on Saturday.

“I was just at the border between Iran and Afghanistan, where thousands of Afghans are returning under adverse circumstances,” said Arafat Jamal, UNHCR Representative in Kabul. “Afghan families are being uprooted once again, arriving with scant belongings, exhausted, hungry, scared about what awaits them in a country many of them have never even set foot in. Women and girls are particularly worried, as they fear the restrictions on freedom of movement and basic rights such as education and employment.”