Over a million Afghan refugees returned home in 2016

Over a million Afghan refugees returned home in 2016. The Afghan government said on Monday December 19, 2016, that the refugees voluntarily returned home from Pakistan and Iran, representing the highest number of returnees in 14 years.

The Afghan Refugees and Repatriation Minister said the returnees from neighbouring countries included both registered and undocumented families. In addition, a record 551,000 Afghans have fled their homes this year due to fighting and insecurity, raising the overall number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Afghanistan to 1.3 million.

Returned refugees and internally displaced persons continue to need assistance said the ministry and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). However, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said that only 10% of the estimated 400,00 Afghans who have returned home from Iran this year will require humanitarian assistance. The UNOCHA spokesperson said that many of the numbers from Iran were ‘circular – that means there are a significant number of cases where one person that is moving back and forth across the border could be counted many times.’

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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