More than 70 Afghans died in a bus accident in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, local officials said, after the vehicle collided with a truck and a motorbike in Herat Province, on the border with Iran. It was one of countless buses that have been ferrying Afghan refugees expelled en masse from Iran this year.

Of the 78 people killed, 71 were bus passengers returning from Iran and 17 were children, Ahmadullah Muttaqi, a provincial communication official, said.

About 1.8 million Afghan nationals who lived in Iran for years, some for decades, have been expelled from Iran or forcibly returned to Afghanistan this year as Iranian officials have vowed to expel undocumented nationals.

The returning Afghans, many of whom fled after the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, have come back to a changed country where most women can’t work, girls can’t go to school beyond sixth grade and more than half of the population of 41 million is in need of humanitarian assistance.

More than 1.2 million people have returned just since June, most of them dropped off at a border crossing in Herat Province. Shortly after its war with Israel in May, Iran began accusing Afghans of spying on behalf of Israel and ramped up mass expulsions.

Most of the deportations have followed the same pattern that has left countless Afghans confused and in a state of shock, according to two dozen returning Afghans and aid workers interviewed by New York Times journalists who visited the border last month.