Child protection crisis as mass returns overwhelms Afghan border

Press Statement, 3 July 2025.

A deepening migration crisis is rapidly unfolding at Afghanistan’s Islam Qala border crossing, with devastating consequences for children and their families, warns international aid agency World Vision. Since the onset of mass returns in March this year, more than 640,000 Afghans have been forced back into a country already reeling from economic collapse and years of conflict.

The humanitarian situation is deteriorating quickly. Reception facilities are overwhelmed. Shelters meant to host a few hundred people are now housing thousands. Basic services - water, sanitation, medical care, and child protection are severely lacking. Children are particularly vulnerable, facing malnutrition, illness, psychological stress, and increased risk of exploitation.

“It is truly heartbreaking,” said Thamindri De Silva, National Director of World Vision Afghanistan. “Children are arriving distressed, disoriented, and with no clear sense of where ‘home’ is anymore. Many have endured trauma and mistreatment along the way, and now face a new crisis — no shelter, no food and no safety.”

On 1 July alone, 24,333 people, most of them women and children, crossed the border into western Afghanistan. Many were left stranded outside locked reception facilities, with no choice but to sleep in the open under dangerous and dehumanising conditions.

“We have nothing and were forced to return. We don’t have shelter or cash and don’t know what to do,” said Said Abdul Wahid, a father returning with his family from Iran.

World Vision Afghanistan has declared an emergency response in Herat province, deploying teams to the Islam Qala border crossing to provide life-saving support. This includes emergency healthcare, hygiene supplies, psychosocial first aid for children and families, and urgent assistance to trace and reunify separated family members.

World Vision is urgently appealing to donors and the international community for targeted, flexible funding to: bolster child protection services at key border points; expand emergency access to health, nutrition and shelter; and ensure the safe, dignified reintegration of returning families.

Across Afghanistan, 22.9 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, including 3.5 million children facing acute malnutrition. A 40% reduction in international assistance this year, coupled with severe underfunding of the humanitarian response plan, has left frontline services dangerously overstretched. The mass return of millions — including many vulnerable women and children — will only exacerbate an already dire situation.

“These children are not just crossing a border — they are crossing into uncertainty,” De Silva warned. “We must not turn our backs on them. The world must act — urgently and decisively.”

ENDS

Read more: Inside the growing crisis of Afghan returnees at the Iran border

For all media enquires or spokespeople in relation to this story, please contact our media team.