Aid group urges halt to expulsion of Afghan refugees over dire conditions 

FILE - Afghan refugees deported from Pakistan wait to receive food aid by Red Cross Society in Kandahar on Jan. 24, 2024 FILE - Afghan refugees wait to register in a camp near the Torkham Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2023.

A global humanitarian agency warned Afghanistan's neighbors Wednesday against expelling millions of refugees in the coming months, citing the country’s unpreparedness due to decades of conflict, economic devastation, and climate-related challenges. The Norwegian Refugee Council, or NRC, reported that Iran plans to expel up to 2 million Afghan refugees by March, while at least 800,000 have already been deported from Pakistan since October 2023. ”The many vulnerable Afghans already returning from Iran, whom I met at the border this week, feel they live in an enduring limbo,” stated Jan Egeland, the NRC secretary-general. “They left Afghanistan in search of a better and safer life and are now returning to an uncertain future in Afghanistan, where they face the same unemployment, hunger, and human rights violations that made them leave their homeland in the first place,” he said.