Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, travelled to Herat province on a mission to assess the situation at the Islam Qala border crossing, where thousands of Afghan migrants have returned from Iran.

Otunbayeva was accompanied by Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR Representative in Afghanistan. During a meeting with Noor Ahmad Islamjar, the Taliban-appointed governor of Herat, she said her visit aimed to directly observe the border situation and better understand the challenges facing returnees.

According to a statement released by the governor’s office, Otunbayeva said the United Nations is working with relevant agencies to amplify the voices of returning migrants and to mobilise greater international cooperation in managing the crisis.

Islamjar expressed appreciation for international support provided to Afghan migrants and attributed the current wave of deportations to “foreign aggression and the consequences of climate change.”

He urged the UN to conduct a thorough on-site assessment of the migrants’ condition and to help address their most urgent needs.

The Taliban’s High Commission for Addressing Migrants’ Affairs previously reported that more than 500,000 Afghans have been expelled from Iran in the past 19 days alone, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian pressure on border regions like Herat.