The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in its latest assessment that 54% of people and families returning to Afghanistan are unable to meet their basic needs, a situation the agency links to unemployment, a lack of stable shelter and a shortage of identity documents.<\/p>\n
In the third report of its \u201cAfghanistan Returnee Resilience Review,\u201d the agency said the reintegration of returnees is facing multiple, overlapping barriers that, it added, reinforce one another and make rebuilding lives more difficult.<\/p>\n
Mehyoung Park, head of the IOM office in Afghanistan, said: \u201cThe findings show that many returnees intend to stay in Afghanistan and rebuild their lives; but their ability to do so depends on access to livelihood opportunities, safe shelter, identity documents and essential services, alongside support for host communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IOM said the survey included returnees who had been back in Afghanistan for at least eight months and were aged 14 or older. According to the report\u2019s findings, 53% of those surveyed had not completed any level of education, 50% had no specialized experience, and 69% had not had a job in the 30 days before the interview.<\/p>\n
The agency added that even among those who had work, 71% were employed part-time or in incomplete jobs, a situation it said is seen alongside a widespread inability to cover basic expenses.<\/p>\n
On shelter, the report says \u201cshelter security\u201d remains a major concern: 77% of returnees were living in temporary accommodation and 51% did not have enough space to live in. The report said many returnees \u201crelied on verbal rental agreements or stayed with others, and 14% had been evicted since their return, with inability to pay rent the most common reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IOM also said returnees need identity documents and food assistance, and that the lack of identity documents affects their access to services and long-term stability.<\/p>\n
The report also examined the intention to leave Afghanistan again. According to IOM findings, among individual returnees, the share of those intending to go outside Afghanistan was 11% in the first round, fell to 5% in the second round, and rose to 16% in the third round. Among returning families, the figure changed from 2% to 1%, and then to 4%.<\/p>\n
The agency said that in the third round of the survey, individual returnees were four times more likely than returning families to plan to leave Afghanistan, adding that \u201cthis highlights the link between income, employment and future mobility decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IOM stressed that findings from all three rounds show reintegration pressures remain significant and are changing. For that reason, it said support for returnees should not be limited to the point of arrival. The agency called for sustained investment in \u201cdurable solutions\u201d and \u201carea-based\u201d reintegration approaches that, it said, should strengthen livelihood opportunities, improve access to shelter, facilitate access to identity documents and expand access to services for returnees and host communities.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan has in recent years faced unprecedented waves of returning migrants, particularly following their expulsions from Iran and Pakistan. According to United Nations figures, nearly 6.5 million migrants have returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, a trend that has added to humanitarian needs in the country alongside its broader crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IOM says 54% of returnees in Afghanistan cannot meet basic needs amid unemployment, poor shelter and a lack of identity documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-migrant-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}