Refugees forced back to Afghanistan face squalid, freezing camps

With winter temperatures setting in and rates of infectious disease soaring, aid agencies say they are deeply concerned about the conditions facing Afghan refugees as they are forced to return to makeshift open-air relief camps in their home country.
In a snap decision last month, Pakistan warned it would deport about 1.7 million undocumented Afghan nationals. Since then, officials in that country have been carrying out sweeps through refugee settlements hunting for undocumented immigrants.
Of the Afghans targeted in this process only around half a million fled to escape the Taliban after it seized power in 2021. A large number had fled during the 1979-89 Soviet war, while others crossed the border during the Taliban’s first spell in power in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Since Pakistan announced its decision, aid agency staff have worked around the clock to assist the waves of people pouring across the Torkham border shared by Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Aid trucks and blue-and-white tents have sprung up across dusty swathes of land near Torkham that had been barren wasteland until very recently, with thousands of people now living in the hastily-arranged camp.
Aid workers told The Independent that many of the women and children in the camps were not born in Afghanistan and have not lived a single day under the Taliban regime.
Their misery is being compounded by plummeting temperatures and worsening outbreaks of diarrhoea and respiratory diseases, according to Save The Children’s country director Arshad Malik. Families are being forced to drink dirty water in small quantities and defecate in the open, aid workers on the ground reported.
With not enough tents to go around some refugees are being forced to spend nights sleeping outside, and more than 3,000 cases of acute respiratory infections and over 1,200 cases of diarrhoea have been recorded at the camps so far.
“The temperature on Monday night plunged to 1C and is only around 5C at its maximum,” says Malik.
“I am seeing families and people who have never lived a day in Afghanistan forcibly returning to the country with no money, no food and no clothes in their hands.
“Many kids are falling sick due to severe respiratory infections because of their prolonged exposure to extreme cold weather as they have travelled to Afghanistan in open, overcrowded trucks.
“They are facing dust storms, enclosed smoky shelters, other sick people and falling sick [themselves],” he said.
One woman who recently returned to Afghanistan told Save The Children that the camp at Torkham was “overwhelming and not suitable for children and women”.
“It gets cold at night and children do not have warm clothes. There are also few toilets and not enough drinking water. We want at least a proper shelter for us,” said 20-year-old Sharifa*.
Lack of basic hygiene has become a major concern at the border area, pointed out one doctor working with the non-profit.
“There are no proper clean toilets, and these children are not receiving regular and proper meals. If they stay here for a longer time or if the situation persists and the weather becomes colder, there will be many health risks for the children,” said Dr Fahima*.
The cold conditions at night make it difficult to ensure the wellbeing of children inside these tents, the 38-year-old doctor said.
Most children in the camps have stomach pains due to the lack of clean water and proper hygiene facilities, she said. The children are not able to wash their hands properly.
The camp is running out of sanitary pads and underwear for young women, the non-profit said.
While 80 per cent of the returning population comprises women and children, one in every four returning children to Afghanistan is under the age of five, Save the Children said. Over 60 per cent of the returnees are estimated to be children, it said.
“It is difficult for the families to cope under completely new circumstances,” Mr Malik explained to The Independent.
“The country is already reeling from multiple crises and now, additional people returning will further stress the already overwhelmed support system.”
He said while the Taliban has at least permitted aid organisations to operate in these urgent response areas around the Torkham border, that is where the de facto state’s involvement ends. It means aid workers are left to do all the work keeping these families alive and fed.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it supplied returnee families with fortified biscuits upon arrival at the border and, after registration by the International Organization of Migration (IOM), with cash assistance to help cover their most urgent needs.
Aid workers in Afghanistan have consistently faced a crunch of resources, including international funding, ever since the Taliban seized power.
“Since the beginning of this month, we have already supported more than 225,000 people,” the WFP said.
“WFP is planning to reach 1 million returnees over the coming months and urgently needs $16m to provide assistance to these families. Once arrived in major cities or their areas of origin, they will require further support to withstand the coming winter.”
Afghanistan has over six million people already internally displaced, according to IOM.
It has also faced a number of crises since the Taliban takeover, including extreme climate events like droughts, floods and earthquakes that have killed thousands.
But with the continuing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, international attention has been drawn away from the country.
“This is absolutely the wrong time to pull out from Afghanistan. The women and children need the world to help them survive otherwise there will be a catastrophic impact,” warned Mr Malik. “This is the worst time to look away from these women and kids.”
*Names changed to protect identities