Which countries people are fleeing from – and why

The US government halted all applications for green cards, citizenship and asylum from 19 mostly African and Middle Eastern countries on December 2. This move came a week after President Donald Trump announced he would “permanently pause migration” from all “third-world countries” after two national guard members in Washington were shot by an Afghan national.

A cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 presidential election campaign was his promise to deport record numbers of migrants. And in September, his administration claimed to be on track to deport nearly 600,000 people by the end of Trump’s first year in office. But these latest announcements are a sharp escalation.

Regardless of what this will all mean for migrants in the US moving forward, it has drawn renewed global attention to migration. So what are some of the countries people have been fleeing from in recent years, and why are they taking the decision to do so?

Afghanistan

Afghanistan has one of the largest displaced populations in the world. Four decades of conflict and instability have contributed to a situation where, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), up to 1 million Afghan men migrate annually.

These people are mostly aged between 18 and 26 and migrate via informal means to neighbouring Iran and Pakistan, as well as westward predominantly to Turkey, the Gulf region, Europe and the US. Women and girls generally constitute only a small proportion of the migration flows.

The number of people fleeing Afghanistan surged in 2021, when the Taliban took back control of the country after a 20-year insurgency against US and Nato forces. The IOM estimated that approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Afghan nationals were migrating abroad each week around the time the Taliban captured the capital of Kabul.

Around 180,000 Afghans were resettled in the US under Biden-era programmes to help people who had worked with allied forces during the war escape. The US has now effectively ended these programmes.

Since 2021, tens of thousands more Afghan migrants have been resettled in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Brazil. They have arrived under schemes similar to those introduced by the US, as well as by seeking asylum through more conventional routes.

Migration from Afghanistan is being driven primarily by the pursuit of safety and economic security. When the Taliban first ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it completely excluded women from public life – banning their education and employment.

The Taliban authorities also prohibited music, visual arts, paintings and even poetry. And it enforced harsh criminal punishments for people accused of adultery, including public floggings and stonings.

Since 2021, the Taliban has reintroduced many of these policies. Women are banned from education beyond primary school, as well as employment and public spaces. They cannot move freely in public without a male guardian.

Amnesty International says the Taliban has carried out arbitrary arrests, forcible disappearances and torture. It claims former government employees, human rights defenders and journalists have been executed without trial.

At the same time, the economic situation is dire. The Afghan economy has long depended on foreign assistance, which has been disrupted as a result of sanctions against the Taliban. In 2024, the UN reported that approximately 85% of Afghans live on less than US$1 a day (£0.75).

Iran

In Afghanistan’s westerly neighbour Iran, many people are also choosing to flee. Around 2.2 million Iranians left the country in 2022, with research out of Tehran’s Sharif University finding that 62% of those currently living abroad have no intention of returning.

Many of the people leaving Iran are young professionals or students. In 2024, Iranian state media reported that approximately 110,000 students had left the country to study abroad that year, with Europe and the US popular destinations.

Others resort to illegal migration. Between January 2023 and March 2024, around 20,000 Iranian nationals applied for asylum in the EU, while approximately 62,000 have sought asylum in the UK over the past decade – more than any other nationality.

The decision of Iranians to flee appears to stem from a loss of hope in change. Iran’s authorities have consistently responded to protests violently, most recently killing more than 500 people in a crackdown on the Women, Life, Freedom movement. This nationwide movement was sparked by the death of a 22-year-old Iranian girl called Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.

Beyond state repression, many Iranians are struggling to find jobs in an economy that has been severely weakened by years of western sanctions. And even those who do have jobs are gradually seeing their quality of life eroded by high inflation rates. Cultural restrictions, such as a ban on modern dress and western music, are also a source of frustration for people.

Pakistan

Nearly 3 million Pakistani nationals have moved away from their country in the past three years. Many of these people are skilled workers seeking opportunities in Australia, Canada, Europe, the UK or US. Others, usually unskilled workers, are migrating to the Gulf region.

The number of students in Pakistan going abroad for their studies is also on the rise. Visas issued to Pakistani students in the UK, for example, have grown from less than 5,500 in 2019 to over 35,500 in 2024.

The desire of many Pakistanis to live abroad is largely the result of their country’s weak economy, which has become characterised by high inflation, substantial public debt and limited job opportunities.

At the same time, the Pakistani government has introduced various authoritarian laws in recent years. This has included a bill passed in January 2025 that criminalised online disinformation – a law its critics say is designed to quash dissent.

Pakistan’s government has also installed a national internet firewall, enabling the authorities to monitor online traffic and regulate the use of popular apps. The initiative has sparked concerns about its potential to stifle protest.

With reduced space to demand change from their government, many people in Pakistan are seeing no option but to move abroad.

Sanwal Hussain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.