Taliban Say Over 800 Families Forcibly Returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan

KABUL (Hasht-e Subh) -- The Taliban announced that 812 families, comprising 4,214 people, were forcibly returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan on Tuesday.

Hamidullah Fitrat, deputy Taliban spokesman, said in a Wednesday press release that the largest number of returnees -- 591 families totaling 3,150 individuals -- crossed via the Torkham border. He added that 155 families arrived through Spin Boldak, 39 families via the Nimroz province border, 19 families from Islam Qala and eight families from Bahram Chah in Helmand province.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stated that thousands of Afghans are returned daily from Pakistan, where they face shortages of housing, health services and severe economic difficulties.

These forced returns come amid Afghanistan's ongoing economic crisis, drought, earthquakes, floods and a broad wave of refugee expulsions, conditions that have significantly worsened the plight of returning families.