NICOSIA, Cyprus, Oct. 15, 2025 /Christian Newswire/ — Christians are among more than two million Afghan citizens who have been forcibly returned to Afghanistan this year — mass deportations that could catapult them back into “the very mouth of death.”

Christians have been targeted by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban — an anti-Christian regime that reportedly has executed people for simply having Bible apps on their phones. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled to Iran, Pakistan, and other neighboring countries after the Taliban retook control in 2021.

 

“For Christians, return to Afghanistan could mean severe persecution and even death,” said John Cerniglia, president of SAT-7 USA, a Middle East-based Christian broadcaster that hears from Afghan Christians who fear what will happen to them.

 

One said deportation back to Afghanistan was “a return to the very mouth of death.”

 

‘I Don’t Want To Be Killed’

 

“I don’t want to be deported,” said Afghan teenager Armita, her real name withheld. “I don’t want to be killed.”

 

Armita and her father fled to Tajikistan, a nation bordering Afghanistan, after her uncle — a Christian — was killed by the Taliban.

 

“Girls like me are being forced into marriage (with Taliban fighters),” she said. “I don’t even know how to express the terror.”

 

Officials in Tajikistan recently ordered all Afghan citizens there to leave the country, according to reports.

 

Mass Deportations

 

Huge numbers of Afghans have already been deported from Pakistan and Iran, neighboring countries where waves of Afghans fled to escape the Taliban.

 

According to Dr. Saeed Peyvandi, a professor of sociology, the Iranian government seized on a rising phobia of Afghans to launch mass deportation efforts. The UN Refugee Agency says the total number of Afghanis deported from Iran and Pakistan exceeds 2.1 million. More than half are children.

 

Source: InChrist Communications