283,000 Afghans Have Returned from Iran in Eight Months

The International Organization for Migration says around 300,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Iran and Pakistan since the beginning of this year. Nearly 95 percent of these departures were from Iran.

The International Organization for Migration reports that 283,000 Afghan citizens left Iran during the first eight months of 2019. During this period, 17,000 Afghans also returned from Pakistan to their country. In 2018, the total number of Afghans who returned from Pakistan was 33,000.

The organization has emphasized that the statistics do not include Afghans whose names are officially registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or those without residence permits.

In 2018, more than 773,000 unregistered Afghan refugees returned from Iran to Afghanistan. That same year, due to severe drought in western Afghanistan, many farmers had migrated to Iran. It is estimated that another 570,000 people will leave Iran in 2019 due to “ongoing economic difficulties.”

Currency shocks and the dramatic collapse of the Iranian currency’s value, combined with the impacts of sanctions, have primarily affected Afghan workers. The construction industry downturn and economic recession have caused a sharp decline in demand for cheap Afghan labor.

The International Organization for Migration announced in January 2019 that the number of returnees showed a 66 percent increase compared to 2018. According to this body, between 1.5 to 2 million unregistered Afghan migrants live in Iran, and another one million reside legally in the country.

Afghans migrated to Iran and Pakistan following the 1979 Soviet invasion and subsequent internal wars and Taliban rule. This migration continues. Afghan workers pay smugglers between 300 to 500 dollars to reach Iran.

Many Afghan workers in Iran had been sending part of their wages to their families in Afghanistan, but a 300 percent surge in the dollar-to-rial exchange rate has reduced this financial assistance to a meager amount. Afghans are returning home while the country faces rising unemployment, very slow economic development, and a large number of internally displaced persons.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says more than 220,000 people have been displaced from their villages and homes since the beginning of 2019 due to armed conflicts, particularly in northern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan.

Source: DW