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Afghanistan + 2 more

Return of Undocumented Afghans - Weekly Situation Report (14 - 20 October 2018)

Attachments

Highlights

657,658total returns from Iran and Pakistan since 01 Jan 2018

630,283 total returns from Iran since 01 Jan 2018

27,375 total returns from Pakistan since 01 Jan 2018

14,729 undocumented Afghans returned from Iran

297 undocumented Afghans returned from Pakistan

2% of returnees from Iran (314 individuals) assisted

59% of returnees from Pakistan (174 individuals) assisted

Return from Iran

A total of 14,729 undocumented Afghans spontaneously returned or were deported from Iran through the Milak (Nimroz) and Herat (Islam Qala) border crossings between 14 to 20 October 2018. 21% less than in the previous week. This brings the total number of undocumented returnees from Iran since 01 January 2018 to 630,283.

IOM provided post-arrival humanitarian assistance to 297 (2%) undocumented Afghans deported from Iran at its Transit Centers in Nimroz and Herat, including 55 Unaccompanied Migrant Children (UMC), 17 Medical Cases (MC), 13 members of Single Parent Families (SP), 6 Special Cases (SC), 11 Poor Families (PF) and 1 Unaccompanied Elderly (UE).

Drought Displacement in the Western Region

The Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) identified 32,180 families (225,250 individuals) displaced by drought in the Western region between 01 January and 23 October 2018, all of which are in need of humanitarian assistance. Of these, 44% or close to 100,000 individuals are children and youth below the age of 18, and one fifth (19%) are below the age of five. 58% of these displaced left their home districts in Badghis for the provincial capital Qala-e Naw, 37% left their homes in Badghis, Ghor, Sar-e Pul, Daykundi, Bamyan, Farah and Herat province to settle in and around Herat city. The remaining 5% of displaced settled in the provincial capitals of Ghor, Bamyan, Kandahar and Daikundi provinces. More information here.

Situation Overview

Since 01 January 2018, IOM is responding to the return of over 60,000 undocumented Afghans from Pakistan and Iran.

Undocumented returns from Iran in particular are seeing a massive increase of more than 200,000 to over 460,000 total between January-July 2018 versus 187,000 during the same time period in 2017, largely driven by recent political and economic issues in Iran including massive currency devaluation. As Afghans primarily work in the informal economy in Iran the demand for this type of work is drastically reduced. Further as all Afghans typically send home their earnings in the form of monthly remittances, the Afghan economy itself, already evident in the drought affected provinces of Herat, Badghis and Ghor, is suffering direct and immediate effects.