Millions of people returning to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries are receiving humanitarian support at the border, but they will need more help to rebuild their lives, according to UN-Habitat, the agency that advocates for sustainable communities.
"The real challenge is still ahead of us," Stephanie Loose, Programme Manager in Afghanistan, told journalists in Geneva on Friday.
"We're speaking about the reintegration of people who've lost their homes, who've lost their assets and also their hope."
Millions on the move
Afghanistan is currently facing an unprecedented returnee crisis.
Since September 2023, some three million Afghans living in Pakistan and Iran were either deported or voluntarily repatriated, with over two million arriving so far this year. For some, it's not a return but a new start.
"Many in Afghanistan don't have a place to go because they've never actually lived in Afghanistan," Ms. Loose said.
"Sixty per cent of those who are returning now are below 18, so they don't have any social ties, they don't have any networks, and there is a real risk for them taking negative coping mechanisms."
Concern for women and girls
Returnees are coming to a country under Taliban rule and where roughly half the population - 22.9 million people - requires humanitarian assistance amid economic, human rights and climate-related crises.
Ms. Loose noted that Taliban edicts preventing women and girls from attending secondary school, getting a job, or going outside without a male chaperone, present a serious challenge to returnees.
"They're being pushed back into a country where there's no education for girls beyond 12, where they don't actually know where to go, and where there's actually specifically for women and girls no social and no economic development opportunities," she said.
"We also have women-headed households who return to the country. So, you can just imagine actually what it means to them. They cannot actually leave their houses without being accompanied by a mahram, a male guardian, even if they want to go and see a doctor."
