Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes in Afghanistan with thousands being smuggled out of the country each day amid a Taliban onslaught that has sparked fears of a new refugee crisis.
Smugglers in the city of Zaranj - a border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran that was captured by the Taliban last week - say the number of people looking to leave the country has trebled in recent months amid fears the Islamists will soon retake power.
One smuggler, speaking to MailOnline, said that on a 'good day' he takes now 150 people across the border to Tehran compared to 50 in recent years - with many hoping to escape Iran into Turkey and then onwards to Europe and the UK, where they intend to claim asylum.
The Taliban are sweeping through the country, taking Ghanzi and Herat today, taking to 11 the number of provincial capitals that have fallen in less than a week. With Ghanzi and Pul-e-Khumri, the Taliban now control the two cities on the main highway north and south of the capital Kabul.
The government offered a power-sharing deal on Thursday in the hope of stemming the offensive, although experts doubt the Taliban will accept it.
Most migrants make their way to the smuggling hub of Herat - which has come under attack by the Taliban in recent days - before they are either taken north to the Khosan border crossing with Iran, or south to Zaranj - which has also fallen into Taliban hands.
The northern route is the most expensive and also the most dangerous - with migrants forced to swim a river and then crawl for two hours to avoid security cameras - but carries the least risk of getting caught. A second route goes from Zaranj directly into a Iran and to a safehouse in Kerman, before a final journey to Tehran.
The third route - the cheapest and most commonly used - goes into Iran via Pakistan, then to Kerman and Tehran. It is also the safest route, but carries the greatest chance of getting caught.
Rapid advances by the Taliban has led to warnings from anti-migrant Turkish opposition that new refugee crisis mirroring 2015 is looming - with opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu saying up to a million Afghans could come.
Frontex, the EU's migration agency, said just yesterday that migration through the Balkans almost-doubled in the first half of this year compared to last, driven mostly by an increase in Afghans and Syrians. That prompted Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi to warned the EU is 'not ready' for another migrant crisis.
The Foreign Office and Border Force refused to comment about whether they fear an influx to Britain of Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban.
Thousands of Afghans are fleeing the country every day, smugglers have said, mostly on three routes all of which begin in Herat - a smuggling hub. The most direct, expensive, and dangerous route goes from there to Tehran via a crossing at Kohsan where migrants have to swim a deadly river, but stand the least chance of getting caught. A second route goes south to Zaranj before the crossing into Iran, to a safehouse in Kerman. From there, the migrants are taken to Tehran when the coast is clear of guards. The third and most-common route goes via Pakistan to Iran - it is the cheapest, but has the largest chance of capture
An Afghan family at the border crossing with Pakistan in Spin Boldack waits to cross after the border was shut when the Taliban took control of it a week ago
Afghan refugees sit in a camp in the capital Kabul, where thousands of people have fled fighting in the rest of the country
The UN estimates that 400,000 Afghanis have fled their homes since the start of the year due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan army which is likely to intensify in the coming weeks
An Afghan child looks out of a tent in the capital Kabul where makeshift refugee camps have been springing up to house thousands of people displaced by fighting in the country
Pakistan's paramilitary soldiers stand guard in front of people who gather and wait to cross at the Friendship Gate crossing point in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border town of Chaman. Pakistan, which has seen the largest number of Afghan refugees cross its border, has refused to take any more
UN data reveals that 400,000 people have fled their homes inside Afghanistan since the start of the year, with almost 300,000 of those fleeing since May as fighting between the government and Taliban stepped up.
The vast majority of those are still inside the country, the UN says, but with Islamist fighters making rapid gains in almost every region and government forces in retreat, many are looking to leave the country.
Just how many is largely unknown. The UN says just 200 crossed the border into Iran on the weekend just gone, but only counts those who are officially registered as refugees.
But with the Taliban in control of most major border crossings and foreign nations shutting their doors - Pakistan, the largest recipient of Afghan refugees to date, has refused to take any more - it is perhaps not surprising that many, if not most, of those fleeing are doing so under the radar.
Speaking to the MailOnline by phone from Zaranj, one smuggler said: 'I and my team here used to send around 50 or even fewer people to Iran on our pickup trucks each day for years it now stands at 100 or 150 on a good day.
'I should thank Trump, Biden and the Americans. Many of these people are highly educated, sometimes I regret sending them out, but it may save their lives.
'We are responsible for getting these people to Teheran, and our job ends there.
'But I know through talking with many of them that their final destination is not Iran. Many have plans for Europe in their heads. Thousands are being sent out of Afghanistan each day through this city.'
But the perilous 1,500 mile journey across Iran holds its own dangers for the refugees as they must negotiate mountain ranges and canyons as they head west.
The reason they are leaving the war-torn country in a mass exodus is explained by 16-year-old Adul Tawab, who lost his uncle Saranwah Nadir in a brutal Taliban attack on his village.
Adul's graphic photographs, shot on his mobile phone, showed appalling scenes of carnage from the site in Mohammad Agha district, about two hours south of Kabul, with women and children among those
