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Return of Undocumented Afghans - Weekly Situation Report (4 - 10 November 2018)

Countries
Afghanistan
+ 2 more
Sources
IOM
Publication date
Origin
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Highlights

700,056 total returns from Iran and Pakistan since 01 Jan 2018

671,065 total returns from Iran since 01 Jan 2018

28,991 total returns from Pakistan since 01 Jan 2018

12,475 undocumented Afghans returned from Iran

385 undocumented Afghans returned from Pakistan

4% of returnees from Iran (492 individuals) assisted

85% of returnees from Pakistan (328 individuals) assisted

Return from Iran

A total of 12,475 undocumented Afghans spontaneously returned or were deported from Iran through the Milak (Nimroz) and Herat (Islam Qala) border crossings between 3 - 10 Nov 2018, 1% more than in the previous week (12,402). This brings the total number of undocumented returnees from Iran since 01 January 2018 to 671,065.

IOM provided post-arrival humanitarian assistance to 492 (4%) undocumented Afghans deported from Iran at its Transit Centers in Nimroz and Herat, including 75 Unaccompanied Migrant Children (UMC), 45 Medical Cases (MC), 25 members of Single Parent Families (SP), 2 Single Females (SF), 3 Physically Disabled (PD), 37 Special Cases (SC), 5 member of Poor Families (PF) and 8 Unaccompanied Elderly (UE).

Situation Overview

Since 01 January 2018, IOM is responding to the return of over 700,000 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.