KABUL (SW) – A large number of Afghan immigrant who have recently returned from Pakistan say that this return has put them in a difficult situation and an unclear future.
A number of Afghan immigrants who have returned to their homeland after living in Pakistan for years, complain about facing the conditions they left Afghanistan to escape in the first place. Shams, one of the Afghan immigrants who was expelled because he did not have a legal document to stay in Pakistan, says that there is neither a job for him nor a shelter to spend the night.
“It has been many years since we immigrated from Afghanistan to Pakistan. During this time, our houses were also destroyed. We had a business and a shop there and now we don’t have a job. We are worried about how we will spend our time.”
Aminullah, another Afghan immigrant who has recently returned to the country, asks the caretaker government and aid agencies to undertake aid programs to deal with the situation of immigrants who came from Pakistan. “Our wish is that there should be cooperation with us because all people are poor and oppressed. Many do not have shelter to live and many do not have income to live here.”
At the same time, the process of deportation and voluntary return of Afghan immigrants from Iran has also intensified in recent months. According to the information that the local authorities of the Islamic Emirate have shared with the media in Nimroz, in the current year, 57,382 people have returned from Iran to Afghanistan, which has increased compared to a month ago. At the peak of this year, 41,000 immigrants returned from this country.
On the other hand, economic experts consider the flood of Afghan immigrants returning to the country as worrying when Afghanistan is facing an economic crisis. Lal Zazi, an expert on economic issues, says: “In a situation where unemployment has increased, economic projects have stopped and international donors have reduced their aid to Afghanistan, the return of migrants will increase economic problems.”
Zahir Behzad, another expert on economic issues, says: “The return of immigrants in the current situation puts more responsibility on the government because the poverty gap has increased and opportunities have decreased. As a result, we will witness a series of problems in society.
Thousands of Afghans have returned home after Pakistan ordered illegal Afghan immigrants to leave the country by the end of October. Even though there are no exact statistics of the number of returnees, but according to the statistics provided by the local officials at the Spinboldak-Chaman border crossing, an average of 190 families from Pakistan enter Afghanistan every day.
However, the Islamic Emirate does not yet have a clear plan to provide work for returnees. In this report, we tried to have the views of the officials of the Islamic Emirate, but we did not succeed.
ENDS
