Officials at the Directorate of Refugees and Returnees in Kandahar, Afghanistan, report that, so far this solar year, 54,958 Afghan migrants have returned from Pakistan via the Spin Buldak border crossing.
Habibullah, the registration officer for returnees at the directorate, says that this year, Pakistan has also handed over 1,497 Afghan prisoners to the authorities of the Islamic Emirate through the Spin Buldak border.
“Pakistani forces had arrested them under various charges,” he said.
Some returning families from Pakistan say that their struggles with migration have not ended, and they still face difficulties in their home country.
These families describe the assistance they receive as insufficient and have called on the Islamic Emirate’s de-facto government to provide shelter and job opportunities.
Sher Mohammad, a returnee from Pakistan, shares, “In Pakistan, my children were not allowed to go to school. We could only live in one room, and we couldn’t go to other cities to work because Afghans were arrested.”
Zekrullah, who recently returned to Afghanistan through the Spin Buldak border crossing, says, “They attacked us, took our money illegally, and imprisoned us. Life there was very difficult.”
According to the Directorate of Refugees and Returnees in Kandahar, the construction of a settlement for returnees is currently underway in the province. Additionally, efforts to provide both cash and non-cash assistance to returnees are continuing.
