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ABOUT DTM FLOW MONITORING
DTM Flow Monitoring, conducted by IOM Afghanistan, is designed to provide insights into the mobility patterns at Afghanistan’s border points with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan. This activity involves two interlinked exercises: Flow Monitoring Counting (FMC), which monitors the number of movements across the border, and Flow Monitoring Surveys (FMS), which collect data on the profiles of randomly selected Afghan nationals crossing the border including documentation held, reasons for travel, and the intended period of stay/ travel. It is important to note that DTM collects information on total movements at a given border point, not the number of unique individuals entering or leaving the country. As a result, if one individual both left and re-entered Afghanistan during the reporting period, this would count as one outflow movement and one inflow movement. Movements can be attributed to a wide variety of reasons, including returnees coming back to Afghanistan after living abroad, people visiting family, deportees, those travelling for economic reasons, medical patients, students, or Afghans moving abroad for different reasons. Circular movements, which include those who frequently and regularly travel back and forth across the border for trade and other reasons, are also common. This monitoring offers a clear picture of population movements in and out of the country.
DTM FM is operational at four main crossing points (connected to Afghanistan’s National Highway) as well as six other crossing points with Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan. This weekly snapshot combines information from the FM activity and various IOM sources related to cross-border movement. For a detailed explanation of the methodology used in gathering this data, the report directs readers to the section titled “IOM INFLOW DATA” on the last page.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
• During this reporting period, inflow movements (69,625) were 17 per cent larger than outflow movements (58,900). Compared to last week, this week’s inflow movements decreased by six per cent, while outflow movements decreased by 10 per cent.
• The month of January 2025 has seen the largest volume of inflows from Pakistan since the beginning of 2024, with 133,767 incoming movements. Prior to this, the highest month was July 2024, during which a little over 133,000 incoming movements were counted by DTM. Survey data shows that movements are primarily driven by return voluntary/spontaneous (48%), family-related reasons (47%), and returning after short-term visit abroad (38%). These reasons remained consistent in 2025 so far.
• Compared to the last three weeks, this week’s outflow movements were dominated by those going to Pakistan, accounting for 52 per cent of total outflow movements, while the remaining 48 per cent were going to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
• In January 2025, a total of 1,813 individuals returned from Türkiye via Kabul airport, according to IOM’s Cross Border Post-Arrival Humanitarian Assistance (CB-PAHA) (see page 9 for more information).
• The ratio of outflows to inflows was highest at the Spin Boldak border crossing point, where outflows were over 14% larger than inflows. According to survey results, the primary reason for inflows at the Spin Boldak border crossing point was health reasons (89%), followed by family-related reasons (51%), and traveling to country of residence (17%).