Attachments
Highlights
625,667 total returns from Iran and Pakistan since 01 Jan 2018
599,128 total returns from Iran since 01 Jan 2018
26539 total returns from Pakistan since 01 Jan 2018
20,865 undocumented Afghans returned from Iran
706 undocumented Afghans returned from Pakistan
4% of returnees from Iran (289 individuals) assisted
95% of returnees from Pakistan (672 individuals) assisted
Return from Iran
A total of 20,865 undocumented Afghans spontaneously returned or were deported from Iran through the Milak (Nimroz) and Herat (Islam Qala) border crossings between 30 September to 06 October 2018. 20% less than in the previous week. This brings the total number of undocumented returnees from Iran since 01 January 2018 to 599,128.
IOM provided post-arrival humanitarian assistance to 289 (4%) undocumented Afghans deported from Iran at its Transit Centers in Nimroz and Herat, including 56 Unaccompanied Migrant Children (UMC), 22 Medical Cases (MC), 16 members of Single Parent Families (SP), 5 Physically Disabled (PD), 13 Special Cases (SC), 6 member of Poor Families (PF), and 7 Unaccompanied Elderly (UE).
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.