New Delhi, Nov 21 (IANS) Lakhs of Afghan migrants are returning home in a sudden surge in recent times, putting pressure on the Taliban authorities, who are desperately seeking global support, facing international sanctions.
Latest reports from Kabul suggest over 1.5 million people returned to the country in about 10 months, even as local media reflected optimism for enhanced economic cooperation and coordination with its Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nooruddin Azizi, currently in New Delhi.
“(India’s Foreign) Minister Jaishankar emphasised that India supports the progress and prosperity of the Afghan people,” reported Afghanistan’s Tolo News.
It also quoted Afghanistan’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce spokesperson Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, saying, “The meeting also covered the introduction of commercial attaches between the two countries, visa facilitation for Afghan private sector members, reactivation of the previously established joint working group, the creation of a joint chamber of commerce, and resolving issues related to Chabahar Port.”
The discussion further included plans to improve economic coordination and establish trade attaches to boost bilateral trade, the report added.
Meanwhile, in a separate report, Tolo News quoted a spokesperson of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation in Afghanistan saying that more than 2,84,000 Afghan migrants have been deported from Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey in under a month.
According to the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation in Afghanistan, this number includes 83,135 single men who returned separately from their families, and 2,076 prisoners released from Pakistani jails.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) said recently that approximately 4.5 million Afghans abroad are returning to their country, but the country’s severe conditions, including a lack of access to international assistance, are making it difficult for the administration and aid agencies to reintegrate them. This influx, coming primarily from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan, adds to an already fragile nation grappling with the aftermath of decades of instability and recent natural disasters, the agency added.
A Pajhwok Afghan News claimed that 10,405 Afghan refugees were “forcibly repatriated from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran in a single day”.
It quoted a social media post on ‘X’ by the government’s deputy spokesperson, Hamdullah Fitrat, which shared a report from the Secretariat of the High Commission for the Solution of Refugees’ Problems.
The post said 1,763 families, comprising 10,405 individuals, returned to the country on Wednesday, November 19.
The day before, a total of 7,326 Afghan refugees returned to the country after being “forcibly repatriated from Iran and Pakistan”, the report claimed, adding that the number last Sunday was nearly 12,666.
Iran’s Minister of Interior, Iskandar Momeni, meanwhile, told the country’s media that they are currently hosting about six million foreign nationals, while “over 1.5 million migrants have returned to Afghanistan” in 10 months, added Tolo News.
Meanwhile, it added that a UNHCR representative in Afghanistan recently expressed concern over the increasing number of Afghan migrants from Iran, coinciding with a decline in international aid.
The crisis has been heightened with the member states of the European Union seeking ways to repatriate Afghan refugees in their respective countries.
Given the conditions in Afghanistan, it does not have the capacity to absorb these returnees into its local communities.
The Taliban is facing criticism from the world community over its position on basic human rights, particularly affecting women and girls.
Additionally, the country is facing abject poverty, harsh climate conditions, natural calamities like drought and the recent earthquakes, along with perennial armed skirmishes and blasts.
–IANS
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