IOM has donated 130 tents to house vulnerable Afghan families
forced to return home from Iran.

The tents have been sent to the western provinces of Farah and
Nimroz and will be erected on land belonging to host families
overburdened by the sheer number of returnees.

The agency has also begun assisting returnee families who have
reached Kabul by providing blankets and medical assistance.

In the past month, a total of 77,900 undocumented Afghan labour
migrants and their families have been forcibly returned from Iran.
Based on the incoming flow levels and government projections,
roughly 1,500 people a month are expected to continue to arrive in
the coming months.

 

"We lost everything and my husband has no job to come back to,"
said Marzia Mohammadi, aged 17, a mother of baby twins who crossed
the border at Islam Qala and travelled to Kabul. The babies were
treated on arrival by an IOM doctor.

IOM's intervention follows an appeal by President Karzai to the
international community for help to cope with the massive influx of
returnees.

"Local community and government authorities are responding, but
their resources are very limited. Many of these people are
returning with nothing. We need to mobilize international resources
as soon as possible to avert a humanitarian crisis," says IOM Chief
of Mission Fernando Arocena, who took part in one of four recent
United Nations assessment missions to border crossing points.

The forced removals are taking place at a time when Afghanistan
still faces serious internal challenges. The security situation
remains volatile; unemployment in general and among the youth and
unskilled labourers in particular is reaching alarming levels; and
there is a desperate shortage of urban and rural
housing.  

IOM is appealing for international donor support to restock its
emergency supplies and respond to the immediate needs of the
returnees.

For further information, please contact:

Fernando Arocena

IOM Kabul

Tel + 93 (0) 700 251 255

E-mail: "mailto:farocena@iom.int">farocena@iom.int 

Katsui Kaya

Tel +93 (0) 700 185 961

E-mail: "mailto:kkaya@iom.int">kkaya@iom.int