Afghanistan faces 'triple' returnee, climate and aid cut crisis, IOM mission chief says

Sweeping cuts to overseas assistance are impacting nan UN's expertise to support hundreds of thousands of susceptible Afghans returning to their country, pinch nan humanitarian consequence besides overstretched pursuing a bid of deadly earthquakes, nan International Organization for Migration (IOM) main of ngo for Afghanistan has told Euronews.

Around 2 cardinal Afghan nationals person returned from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan this twelvemonth alone, nan mostly from Iran, pinch arsenic galore arsenic 40,000 crossing nan separator each time astatine nan highest of nan situation successful July. 

While immoderate returnees spell backmost voluntarily, galore are forcibly expelled.

Pakistan has precocious accelerated deportations nether nan alleged Illegal Foreigners' Repatriation Plan, pinch a caller target for Afghan nationals holding UNHCR Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to time off nan state by 1 September.

There has besides been a caller wide of Afghans, including refugees, forcibly returned from Iran, pinch a surge successful deportations successful nan aftermath of nan twelve-day warfare betwixt Iran and Israel. 

Tehran has cited nationalist information concerns and made wide accusations linking Afghans successful Iran to Israel’s intelligence services to warrant its crackdown.

Many returnees get destitute and successful hopeless request of shelter, economical assistance, and thief to rebuild their lives.

“They're coming backmost to a benignant of caller country. They don't understand really to navigate nan system, aliases what nan conditions are like,” Mihyung Park, nan IOM’s main of ngo for Afghanistan, said.

“A batch of these group are undocumented and moreover pinch archiving astatine nan border, they're often confiscated.”

Park explains that returnees person a raft of basal needs, including cash, shelter and entree to economical opportunities.

“A batch of group really do want to stay. They want to settee successful nan state and spot really they tin cope,” she says. “But aft a while, what they look is deficiency of livelihood opportunities and they don't person homes.”

Aid cuts mean mostly of returnees cannot beryllium assisted

Western governments’ wide cuts to humanitarian and improvement aid, astir notably US President Donald Trump’s determination to frost his administration’s overseas assistance successful February, are denting assistance operations crossed nan world, pinch nan effect peculiarly felt successful Afghanistan.

An estimated $1.7 cardinal (€1.5 billion) successful US assistance to Afghanistan has been stripped distant this year, forcing an estimated 50 world assistance organisations aliases agencies to partially aliases wholly suspend operations.

The UN has antecedently warned that cutting nan backing could beryllium a ‘death sentence’ for millions of people.

“It has really impacted our activity – not conscionable IOM, but each humanitarian agencies operating successful nan state – successful rather a superior way,” Park told Euronews.

“We had to make rather difficult decisions to de-prioritise (...) and this is moreover earlier nan earthquake and nan ample returns that we did not foresee from some Iran and Pakistan.”

The agency has established 9 ”vulnerability criteria” to nonstop backing to those astir successful need, while besides recognising that nan mostly of returning individuals are susceptible and require assistance.

“When, successful 2023, we had astir a cardinal group who returned from Pakistan, we were capable to assistance almost everyone pinch contiguous assistance. Now, we tin hardly assistance 20% to 30% of group who meet nan vulnerability criteria,” she added.

A bid of caller earthquakes and consequent aftershocks that deed Afghanistan’s mountainous eastbound separator region, sidesplitting much than 2,200 people, person besides compounded urgent needs, pinch nan UN precocious informing that immoderate affected areas person not yet been reached.

The UN has issued an emergency entreaty for astir $140 cardinal (€119 million) successful backing to thief almost half a cardinal group affected.

“We had to really compression earlier nan earthquake (...) Now we person to compression again to supply assistance to nan earthquake-affected zone. So we really, each day, we effort to, we struggle to spot really we tin de-prioritise our priorities,” Park explained.

“Of course, that intends nan group who really request support will not beryllium getting support.”

Women returning look immense barriers

The UN is besides informing that women returnees look rising risks, arsenic Taliban restrictions connected women's and girls’ authorities intensify.

“These are big, immense challenges they face, particularly for women, and particularly women returning from Iran: they're rather knowledgeable and they're exposed to a much unfastened nine wherever they utilized to spell to school, had jobs, and had a bully assemblage background," Park said.

"So erstwhile they return, they are anxious and uncertain astir adapting to an Afghan nine wherever you person nary state for work, and acquisition is simply a immense challenge.”

The IOM estimates that women dress up conscionable nether one-third of returnees from Iran truthful acold successful 2025, and astir half of each returnees from Pakistan.

On Thursday, nan UN’s exile agency said it was halting its assistance to returning Afghans aft nan Taliban prevented its Afghan female unit from working.

In a statement, nan UN said that "de facto Afghan information forces prevented nationalist female unit members and contractors of nan United Nations from entering UN compounds successful Kabul," adding that information officers were "visibly present" extracurricular UN premises successful Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.

The IOM said that while it had besides been impacted, it maintained its "commitment to a opinionated consequence successful nan country", ensuring it continued to "support susceptible Afghan women, men, boys and girls pinch humanitarian and resilience programming, delivered done (...) female and antheral unit throughout the country."