Migrants are driven out of the countries where they have found refuge, only to discover that in their homeland there is no home, no work, and no future waiting for them. This is the human tragedy of people trapped between closed borders and shattered lives.
Millions of Afghan citizens were forced to leave their homeland years ago as a result of war, insecurity, poverty, and the collapse of opportunities for a decent life. In search of safety, employment, and a better future, they sought refuge in neighbouring countries. Today, however, large numbers of these same people face detention, migration pressures, and forced deportation. Even more painfully, many are being returned to a country that still lacks the capacity to provide for their most basic needs.
This is not merely a migration crisis; it is a crisis of the right to life, social justice, and the political responsibility of governments.
Forced Deportation: Human Beings Must Not Be Reduced to Border Statistics
According to operational data published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, by 24 October 2026, the number of recorded returns to Afghanistan during the year had exceeded 1.36 million. This figure includes different forms of return and should not be interpreted entirely as forced deportation. The same data separately recorded more than 619,000 deportations.
Behind every statistic is a human being: a mother worried about her children’s future; a father who does not know how he will provide food for his family; a child forced once again to leave school, friends, and familiar surroundings; and a young person who, after years of effort, suddenly finds themselves facing an uncertain future.
No country can resolve migration challenges by disregarding the human dignity of migrants. Border security cannot serve as an excuse for humiliating people, separating families, or forcibly returning individuals to conditions that place their lives, freedom, and livelihoods at risk.
Migrants are not criminals; they are human beings entitled to live with dignity, enjoy security, and determine their own future!
Afghanistan: A Homeland That Receives Returnees but Lacks the Means to Support Them
Returning home should mark the beginning of a new life, not the start of another cycle of poverty, unemployment, and homelessness. Yet Afghanistan’s reality shows that large-scale returns, in a country where the economy and public services already face serious limitations, place enormous pressure on returning families and host communities.
The United Nations’ 2026 Response Plan for Afghan Returnees projected that approximately 2.7 million people would return from Iran and Pakistan between April and December. The plan highlights extensive needs in shelter, healthcare, education, social protection, and livelihoods.
The fundamental questions are unavoidable: How can a family returning without assets, employment, or shelter rebuild its life? Where can a child who has been deprived of education continue studying? What employment opportunities await a worker who has spent years working abroad?
Official speeches and ceremonial statistics cannot feed hungry people or provide shelter for homeless families. Returnees need practical policies: accessible housing, employment opportunities, healthcare services, free education, and social protection.
A homeland is more than a geographical border; it is a place where people can earn their bread, work, receive an education, and live with dignity!
The Migration Crisis and the Responsibility of Structures of Power
From the perspective of historical materialism, large-scale migration cannot be understood merely as the outcome of individual decisions. Prolonged wars, the destruction of economic infrastructure, unequal power relations, structural poverty, and limited productive opportunities are among the forces that compel millions of people to abandon their homes and countries.
A Marxist-Leninist analysis must ask: What economic and political relations create conditions in which working people, despite years of labour and effort, remain unable to meet their most basic needs? Why is people’s labour utilised in different economies, while their rights, security, and future can so easily be disregarded when crises emerge?
Host countries have a responsibility to respect migrants’ rights, prevent mistreatment, and provide lawful and humane procedures. At the same time, the responsibility of the authorities in Afghanistan does not end when neighbouring countries deport Afghan migrants. Providing security, creating employment, expanding education and public services, and guaranteeing citizens’ rights are fundamental responsibilities of any political system.
Migrants must not become instruments of political rivalry, government propaganda, or regional bargaining. Human beings are neither commodities to be transferred nor statistics whose movement can be used to conceal political and social responsibilities.
Social Justice: Returning Without Food or Shelter Is Not a Solution!
Afghanistan needs a practical national programme to address the crisis facing returnees. Such a programme must go beyond emergency assistance and confront the economic and social roots of the crisis.
It should be built around several fundamental priorities:
● Creating employment and investment opportunities in domestic production, agriculture, and small industries;
● Building housing and shelters for homeless and vulnerable families;
● Providing free education and equal access to schools for girls and boys;
● Ensuring healthcare and social protection for returnees;
● Guaranteeing women’s rights and their participation in economic and social life;
● Promoting regional cooperation to protect migrants’ rights and prevent degrading and unlawful forced deportations.
From the standpoint of social justice, public resources must serve people’s fundamental needs. Development cannot be declared successful merely through announcements of projects and economic figures while returnees remain without shelter, workers without employment, and children without access to education.
Final Words: Do Not Sacrifice Human Beings Between Two Borders!
Being deported from the other side of the border and left homeless on this side are two dimensions of the same humanitarian crisis. It cannot be resolved without transforming economic conditions, guaranteeing people’s rights, and ensuring political accountability.
We defend the human dignity of migrants, their right to voluntary and safe return, their right to seek asylum, and their right to live with dignity. No person should be humiliated because of poverty, nationality, or migration status. No family should be forced to choose between detention in a host country and homelessness in its homeland.
The history of social struggles teaches us that human emancipation cannot be achieved through temporary sympathy or empty promises. It requires transforming the conditions that continually reproduce poverty, dependency, exploitation, and deprivation.
Do not deport migrants only to leave them homeless in their homeland! Guarantee every human being the rights to life, work, education, and security!
No to the humiliation of migrants! No to social injustice! Yes to human dignity, international solidarity, and social justice!