UNHCR: Mass returns push Afghanistan to brink as aid dwindles

Briefing notes

UNHCR: Mass returns push Afghanistan to brink as aid dwindles

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR's Afghanistan Representative Arafat Jamal – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

20 May 2025

An Afghan family receive a health consultation from a medical staff member wearing a face mask.

At a UNHCR centre near the Torkham border, an Afghan family recently returned from Pakistan receives a health consultation.

GENEVA – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and partners are responding to the mass return of Afghans, even as funding is drastically reduced.

Over 3 million Afghans have returned from neighbouring countries since September 2023. This year alone, 780,000 are estimated to have returned, including 351,600 who were deported. They return to a homeland that is clearly unprepared to receive them – a UNDP report found that three-quarters of the population lives at subsistence level, and the UN estimates that half the population needs humanitarian assistance.

To date, UNHCR, other UN agencies, and the international community have played a key role as shock absorbers and stabilization partners. Providing returning refugees with cash grants has helped people to invest in their new lives, by constructing a house or incubating small businesses. And once back in their home district, UNHCR has been able to support communities through interventions such as clinics, schools, housing and job creation.

UNHCR has been a dependable partner and supporter of the Afghan people for 40 years. We have supported the governments that have hosted them, and we are with them now as many make the journey back. The return of Afghans can be a source of stability, economic growth and regional harmony – but only if it is voluntarily and conducted in safety and dignity.

In light of the deeply troubling financial situation in which we find ourselves, our support for Afghans is diminishing. The cash being provided to returnees at the border has been cut by a factor of seven. With the funding reductions, our current assistance packages can offer only the most basic humanitarian assistance – vital, but short term and far from transformational. It can help someone survive, but not effectively rebuild.

The budget cuts are also inhibiting our ability to help those who take great personal risks to help the women and girls of Afghanistan -- those who believe in their community and strive to create conditions for women to be educated, to work, or even just to enjoy leisure time in public.

UNHCR funds have helped these courageous actors to protect and safeguard valuable female-oriented projects. Dropping our assistance means abandoning these people who stand against draconian conditions.

Even as many are forced to return to Afghanistan, others are preparing to leave the country again – for Iran, Türkiye and Europe.

The international community has invested heavily in Afghanistan over the decades. At this difficult juncture, we still have an opportunity to support stability and economic growth. We call upon neighbouring countries to pursue solutions, treat Afghans with dignity, and work regionally to foster safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable returns.

And we appeal to the international community to not abandon its investments, to stay the course, and to provide political and financial support that will allow a dispersed people to return and build their futures. UNHCR requires $216 million to fund its response in Afghanistan this year but has so far received just 25 per cent of that amount.