Challenges for millions pushed back to Afghanistan

After decades hosting Afghans fleeing crises at home, Pakistan and Iran have ramped up deportations and forced millions back across the border to a country struggling to provide for them.

Whether 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.

AFP takes a look at the people arriving in Afghanistan and the challenges they face.

– Five million –

More than five million Afghans have returned home from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The figure equates to 10 percent of the country’s population, according to the agency’s deputy head in Afghanistan, Mutya Izora Maskun.

Three million returnees crossed the borders just last year, some of whom have spent decades living abroad.

Such a huge influx of people would be hard for any country to manage, Maskun said.

– Inadequate housing –

Months after arriving in Afghanistan, 80 percent of people had no permanent home, according to an IOM survey of 1,339 migrants who returned between September 2023 and December 2024.

Instead, they had to live in temporary housing made from materials such as stone or mud.

More recently, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spoke to Afghans who arrived back between January and August last year about their living arrangements.

Three-quarters of tenants said they could not afford their rent, while the majority of families were sharing rooms with up to four people, according to the survey of 1,658 returnees.

– Desperate search for work –

Just 11 percent of adults pushed back from Pakistan and Iran were fully employed, the IOM survey found.

For those who returned in the first few months of last year, the average monthly income was between $22 and $147, according to the UNHCR.

– Water, electricity shortages –

More than half the returnee households lack a stable electricity supply, according to the IOM.

The agency said that households headed by women faced “significantly higher vulnerabilities”, with around half of them struggling to access safe drinking water.

– Speeding up land distribution –

More than 3,000 plots of land have been distributed to returnees nationwide, Hamdullah Fitrat, the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, said in mid-January.

The process “was accelerated”, he said while recounting a special meeting with supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

On their arrival in Afghanistan, returnees usually receive help with transport, a SIM card and a small amount of money.