Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan in ‘very bad condition,’ says UN official

ISTANBUL (AA) – Most of the 327,000 Afghan refugees returned from Pakistan are in “very bad condition,” a UN official has said.

“Today, I’m here at the border with Pakistan in Torkham and I’m witnessing thousands of Afghans returning from Pakistan to Afghanistan,” UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for Afghanistan, Daniel Endres, said on social media platform X.

“Most of them are in a very bad condition. They had to wait for days to reach here,” Endres added.

Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul rose after Pakistan launched a crackdown on undocumented foreigners, mostly Afghan refugees, and returned hundreds of thousands of them to Afghanistan in recent weeks.

“Since mid-September, a staggering 327.4K undocumented Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan. This sudden influx is putting immense pressure on already strained resources and capacity, including shelter and basic services. Additional support is urgently required,” said the UN official.

Endres stressed that another challenge is that “a major earthquake hit Herat. So all the tents, all the blankets, and all the relief items we have in this country, we have used in the response to that earthquake.”

“It is a huge challenge for us to respond to the returnees from Pakistan in this very moment. And huge numbers are coming,” he pointed out.

Emphasizing the importance of finding a temporary solution, he said: “Give them cash grants, food, water, it will be a major challenge above all for the women, for the children.”