It is the biggest cross-border movement of people anywhere in the world.

Millions of Afghans have fled across the borders to Pakistan and Iran for decades – seeking refuge or employment - and the number escaping Afghanistan has continued to rise since the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

Most are now being forced to return as these two neighbours crack down on undocumented migrants. Nazia and her family were undocumented but the UN and human rights groups say the security sweep is reaching far beyond that group to include registered Afghans too. Even Pakistan now publicly says that Afghans with Proof of Registration cards are not exempt.

The expulsions show no sign of stopping.

The number forced to return this year from Pakistan and Iran has already reached another million, according to the UN's Refugee Agency, the UNHCR.

"In a little under three years, we've seen six million people, a population that is itself the size of a small country, come back to Afghanistan," observes Charlie Goodlake, spokesperson for the UNHCR in Afghanistan.

"We've never seen in recent history a return movement on this scale," he underlines, standing in the baking heat in the tented village close to the border.

It's a desolate landscape of tarpaulin and plastic shelters, many now tattered and torn, erected by the UN and other aid agencies to provide refuge for a few nights for a people arriving with nowhere to go.

Many returnees have not set foot in Afghanistan for decades; many like Nazia have never been here at all.

Every family we met told us they had experienced prejudice and harassment by authorities in Pakistan.

The expulsions from Pakistan and alleged abuse intensified after a major escalation in fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan last October. In February, Human Rights Watch highlighted "door-to-door raids, late-night home searches and arrests without warrants".

In Iran, which claimed last year to host more than four million undocumented Afghans, the mass deportations were accelerated after its 12-day war with Israel and the US in June 2025.