UNHCR says it needs $216m this year to support displaced people and returnees across the country
\n kabul
\nNearly 150,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran this year, with the speed and size of the migration pushing Afghanistan deeper into crisis, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.
\nAfter decades hosting Afghans fleeing crisis at home, Pakistan and Iran have ramped up deportations and forced millions back across the border to a country struggling to provide for them.
\n\u201cSo far this year, nearly 150,000 Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan,\u201d Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative to Afghanistan, told a press briefing in Geneva.
\n\u201cThe high number of returns already this year is concerning given the severity of winter, with freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall,\u201d he said, speaking from Kabul.
\n\u201cThese arrivals come on top of already unprecedented returns \u2014 2.9 million people in 2025, bringing the total to some 5.4 million since October 2023.\u201d
\nJamal said they were returning in extremely difficult circumstances.
\nWhether arriving at the frontier surrounded by family or alone, Afghan returnees must establish a new life in a nation beset by poverty and environmental woes.
\n\u201cThe speed and scale of these returns have pushed Afghanistan deeper into crisis, as the country continues to face a deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation \u2014 particularly for women and girls \u2014 a fragile economy, and recurring natural disasters,\u201d said Jamal.
\nUNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch told AFP the number of returns was up more than 50% on this time last year, when just under 100,000 had returned.
\nJamal said that, according to a UNHCR survey of returnees, many families said that members lacked civil documentation, and more than 90% were living on less than $5 a day.
\nAnd he voiced deep concern over the sustainability of returns, saying some were already leaving Afghanistan again.
\n\u201cThese decisions are not driven by a desire to leave, but by the reality that many are unable to rebuild a viable and dignified life,\u201d he said.
\nUNHCR is focusing its efforts on supporting reintegration of returnees.
\nThe agency said it needed $216 million this year to support displaced people and returnees across the country, but its appeal was currently just 8% funded.
\n\u201cThis is a critical moment to act while there is an opportunity to find long-term solutions and resolve displacement for Afghan returnees in their homeland, often after years or decades in exile,\u201d said Jamal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNHCR says it needs $216m this year to support displaced people and returnees across the country kabul Nearly 150,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran this year, with the speed and size of the migration pushing Afghanistan deeper into crisis, the UN refugee agency said on Friday. After decades hosting Afghans fleeing crisis at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-531252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n