After decades of hosting Afghans fleeing crises at home, Pakistan and Iran have stepped up deportations, forcing millions to return across the border to a country struggling to provide for them.
Whether arriving at the frontier with family or alone, Afghan returnees must establish a new life in a nation beset by poverty and environmental challenges.
AFP looks at the people arriving in Afghanistan and the difficulties 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 represents 10 per cent 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 had spent decades living abroad.
Such a huge influx would be difficult for any country to manage, Maskun said.
Inadequate housing
Months after arriving in Afghanistan, 80 per cent of returnees had no permanent home, according to an IOM survey of 1,339 migrants who returned between September 2023 and December 2024.
Instead, they were forced to live in temporary shelters made from materials such as stone or mud.
More recently, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spoke to Afghans who arrived between January and August last year about their living conditions.
Three-quarters of tenants said they could not afford their rent, while most families shared rooms with up to four people, according to the survey of 1,658 returnees.
Desperate search for work
Just 11 per cent of adults pushed back from Pakistan and Iran were in full employment, the IOM survey found.
For those who returned in the first few months of last year, the average monthly income ranged between $22 and $147, according to the UNHCR.
Water and electricity shortages
More than half of returnee households lack a stable electricity supply, the IOM reported.
The agency added that households headed by women faced “significantly higher vulnerabilities”, with around half struggling to access safe drinking water.
Speeding up land distribution
More than 3,000 plots of land have been allocated to returnees nationwide, Hamdullah Fitrat, the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, said in mid-January.
The process “was accelerated”, he said, recounting a special meeting with supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
On arrival in Afghanistan, returnees usually receive help with transport, a SIM card, and a small amount of money.
