Since the beginning of this year, Iran and Pakistan have announced and pursued forced mass deportations of Afghans. More than 1.9 million Afghans have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan so far in 2025, according to the UN. The Israel-Iran war triggered a surge in the deportations. UNHCR estimates Iran deported an average of more than 30,000 Afghans each day during the war. The returnees face the repressive, fascist Taliban rule with soaring unemployment, a broken healthcare system and gender apartheid.
We interviewed Khalid Fahim from The Solidarity Committee for Afghanistan, a rights-based, non-governmental organization founded in 1980 as a reaction to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During the last two decades, SCA has been among the largest actors in the country within health, education and rural development. They are a people-to-people movement, with a special focus on the empowerment of women, children and people with disabilities. As a reaction to the repeated, public burnings of the Quran in Sweden in 2023, the Taliban rule banned the organization from operating in Afghanistan. Since March 2024, SCA no longer has its own operations in the country, but cooperates with organizations on the ground.
How has Taliban rule since 2021 affected the social and economic life of ordinary Afghans?
Afghanistan is a country that was extensively depending on external aid even before the Taliban takeover, people were facing a humanitarian crisis and economic difficulties, but of course the Taliban takeover worsened the situation as the international developmental aid was cut in parallel to the takeover. And that pushed the Afghan population into more difficulties. Problems of increasing poverty, humanitarian and economic crisis – all that has been due to that sudden huge reduction of international aid. In addition to this there’s the inability of the Taliban government to deal with these issues, so the health services were on the verge of collapse, as well as education and all other social services. The unemployment levels have risen. And of course, the repressive policies of the Taliban against women and girls – gradually they’ve taken increasingly restrictive steps, limiting girls from education, banning women from working: all these repressive policies have limited their role in the social sphere. At the same time, the Taliban has been able to control the whole country – the amount of physical violence has decreased to a considerable level, there have been no instances of armed conflict. Yes, there have been a number of insecurity incidents, but from a comparative look it decreased quite substantially, and they’ve been able to fund a budget for domestic revenues from customs and taxes. This is a comparative improvement compared to the time of the Republic. There were other reasons for the Republic’s fall in the takeover of the Taliban, but one obvious reason was the high level of systematic corruption during the time of the Republic.
You say the armed conflicts have decreased, is that because there is no organized opposition or resistance at this specific point to the Taliban rule?
Yes. There is no organized, armed resistance with capacity. There are a number of groups that are operating from outside the country, they have some presence in certain parts, but they don’t have permanent or known presence inside the country. They are from time to time creating pockets of insecurity through grenades to guerrilla type warfare, but that is on a comparative note, it is not on a level of very organized groups and active armed resistance against the Taliban.
What are your observations on the large-scale deportations of Afghans from Iran, particularly regarding the treatment of deportees by Iranian authorities?
I think it’s quite disastrous, given the ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis. The mass level of deportations and the absolute lack of capacity or resources or infrastructure in Afghanistan, I would say it’s only deepening the ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis, and it is adding to the crisis in the health service and all other social services that are already struggling to respond to the needs of the existing population. With these returns, the health service capacities will be overstretched. People already see those signs and are unprepared because it has started practically at once. The aid organizations are not prepared either – so the issue now is that UN and all other actors on the ground who are engaged are just focusing on insufficient emergency help, while very little is done one the sustainable reintegration of these people into the host communities. There is a risk that this leads to some level of conflict with the host communities, so any support being provided in those communities to returnees must also address the needs of the host communities to mitigate the potential risks. There is an urgent need for a conflict sensitive approach to long term resilience strategies and livelihood support so that they move towards sustained economic independence in those communities. More than 1.9 million people has been deported only from Iran this year so far, and that number is still growing, it has not stopped yet. In Iran they are treating the refugees quite bad, quite harsh. There are a lot of reports – for instance, a mother is at the hospital, and they capture the male member of the family on the street and deport the person while the sick family member is still at the hospital. At times they’ve also grabbed children and deported them to Afghanistan without their family members, there are so many unaccompanied children deported. So, this has been done in a very chaotic manner, a very aggressive manner.
And how do you see the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in these deportations? The Israel-Iran war has escalated the deportations, but this has been advertised since the beginning of the year. Afghans have been a vulnerable group in Iran, not having the same civil rights. Are the Islamic Republic rule targeting Afghans in a specific way, is there a specific agenda?
I mean, that’s a bit difficult to understand. The migration to Iran intensified after the takeover by the Taliban, and many of the newly arrived refugees in Iran were employees of the former republic government, even of the security forces or of other public institutions. And most of them fled Afghanistan for Iran in search of a safe haven, because of the Taliban takeover. It is difficult to understand the real motive but one could not rule out that there is some level of agreement between the Taliban and the Islamic Republic to deport these people, the Taliban is definitely concerned about the large number of refugees in the two neighboring countries, and the potential threat that these people can cause in the long run to the Taliban rule inside the country. These things are difficult to verify, but one can approach it from those speculative terms.
From a democratic rights perspective, what are the most serious consequences of these deportations for returnees and for Afghan society as a whole?
Some of these refugees were even born in Iran. And they are returning to a completely different culture and environment in Afghanistan without any prior physical or mental preparation. This will definitely have mental health consequences for these deportees. And it’s very difficult for them to find a place to reside in, as some of these refugees left Afghanistan at the time of the Russian invasion in the 1980’s. They have established a life in Iran and are now forced to return to Afghanistan without having land for subsistence, no home for living.
It might also lead to social conflicts on a community level. These people will be seen as a burden on the existing social services that’s already weak within those provinces – that’s an aspect that could lead to a potential conflict. Some of the deportees were working for the former government’s armed police security forces, and there’s been reports and instances of some people being killed on return. So that’s another point of concern.
What steps do you think should be taken by the Afghan community to resist fascism and protect the rights and dignity of Afghans affected by both Taliban rule and deportations from Iran? What role can international solidarity play here?
I think the main thing here is that the people should be at the center of everything being done. So, reaching out to the vulnerable people of Afghanistan should not be politicized by either side – neither by the international community or the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is in need of immediate attention; Afghanistan must not be forgotten. And when we say Afghanistan, it is the people of Afghanistan we mean – the women and girls. The women and girls first oppressed by the Taliban, and then by the reduced aid from the international community. So, who is losing on this? It’s not the Taliban authorities; it’s the women and girls that are being doubly punished. If women and girls of Afghanistan needs support, more than any other time in the past, it’s now. So, there’s obviously a need, and this response must go beyond the emergency humanitarian support. It is needed no doubt when the deportees return – they need food, they need shelter, they need all that emergency assistance support. But that is not solving the issues. It needs to be coupled with long term sustainable protection and resilience and economic empowerment, so that they find sustainable income sources. That will open for the long term reintegration of those communities and societies and will also reduce the risk of mass migration again. With this forced repatriation, there will be reattempts to leave Afghanistan. This might affect Europe and the West as well.
Are there any examples right now in this specific emergency of the Afghan people or local communities organizing to support the deportees?
There are several examples where businessmen have responded by providing food and water, and extending whatever support they could, but it has not been sufficient at all. Some people went to the borders with their cars just to drive these returnees free of cost to their destinations, that’s been a gesture of support from communities. When it comes to a more organized community response – no, unfortunately it has not been the case.
You briefly mentioned the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan, and they are also the most vulnerable group now with the repatriations. Are women in Afghanistan organizing methods of struggle against the confiscation of all rights, especially for women, by the Taliban?
I think the possibilities for that are quite limited. Women and girls tirelessly demand the right to education and work, to have the possibility to participate in social life – but the agency through recognized social movements, that’s not happening. There were a number of groups in Kabul and certain big cities, but they were very brutally suppressed by the authorities, and that fear and risk is still present. The Taliban is brutally suppressing any, not only women’s and girl’s organizations, but any organization. They are against civil society, more specifically civil society structures in urban settings, as they see these structures as remnants of the 20 years of foreign invasion as well as vehicles of promoting western democracy. On a community and local level there are certain traditional civil society structures, conflict resolution mechanisms from the past: school management committees, health du’as, religious callers, livelihood committees. The acceptance is relatively better towards those structures and any organization for change that can happen will be on that level. They have historical roots in the society, while these urban structures were not intrinsic Afghan civil society phenomena, they were much more instrumentalized and fed by the 20 years of foreign presence in Afghanistan. So, I don’t see that possibility now due to the brutal suppression of the Taliban. The only possibility I see is at that community level.
On that note, which factors do you think will change the future of Afghanistan? Under what conditions is it possible for the Taliban to lose power? If this is possible, will the successor be different from them?
I think the main issue here is the alternative. What alternative is on the table for the people of Afghanistan? And if the alternative is the return of the former corrupt officiants, in my view, people are not ready to accept that. And that provides comparative strength to the Taliban. If the people are asked to choose between the Taliban and the return of those who were in power over the past 20 years, the possibilities are quite bleak that they get the support of the population. So, the biggest issue is the alternative, a third alternative. Not the former ones, not these ones – obviously the people want the situation to change, people are extremely dissatisfied with what’s going on, they want change. But it matters which alternative there is, and another alternative than these two is unfortunately not there at present. And unless that alternative emerges, Taliban will continue to rule.
Editorial team, September 2025