license.Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021, the Afghan political and humanitarian crisis has badly affected the regional environment, with millions of Afghans continuing to flee to neighboring countries.Iran shares a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan and is considered one of the most important host countries for Afghan refugees. However, recent pressures by Iranian authorities, among other factors related to regional geopolitics, have been a cause for the mass return of Afghans from Iran to their country of origin.While Iran has enforced the attempt to bar Afghan immigration into its country through building border walls and introducing tough immigration laws. Let’s take a look on the unfolding Afghan refugee crisis in Iran regarding both refugees and the Iranian state as facing multi-dimensional challenges.

In the last couple of months, Afghans have been leaving Iran and returning home to Afghanistan in extremely large numbers.

According to officials on the border, this mass exodus is being forced, at least partly, by external factors like the move of Pakistan to expel Afghan refugees in irregular situations. Such pressure by Pakistani authorities creates a…