Returnee Influx Intensifies Housing and Employment Crisis in Afghanistan

In Sheberghan, northern Afghanistan, laborer Ghulam Sakhi Barat joined a gathering of jobseekers, as millions of recent arrivals intensify competition for employment and housing.

Over the past three years, more than six million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, where neighboring countries have conducted mass deportation drives following decades of hosting populations fleeing conflict.

Balancing support for seven relatives in Sheberghan, the provincial capital, Barat warned that the influx has left many going hungry.

An 83-year-old Barat, wearing a frayed waistcoat, noted that since returnees arrived, job opportunities for locals have dwindled.

Barat added that while aid flows to returnees, local residents receive no such support.

Though Jawzjan lies hundreds of kilometers from the Iran and Pakistan borders, many Afghans have journeyed there to settle in areas they or their relatives once fled.

After two decades in Pakistan, Abdul Qader Hotak, 60, returned to Jawzjan with no land or property awaiting his family.

His children, he said, once attended school in Pakistan; now, eight months after deportation, they collect rubbish to earn a living.

The UN projects Aqcha’s population will swell by over 26 percent due to mass returns, with water emerging as a critical flashpoint in the drought-stricken district.

Mason Faqir Mohammad Khudabakhsh, who spent two decades shuttling between Afghanistan and Iran, now manages only three days of work per week.

Returned Afghans need both shelter and employment, yet possess neither, said the 54-year-old, surrounded by fellow laborers in Sheberghan.

With limited income, families spend on rent rather than food and clothes, the mason lamented, adding that the community is suffering from malnutrition.

UN data indicates nearly one in three Afghans, approximately 15.9 million people, face crisis-level food insecurity or worse.

Housing competition is intense, with residents reporting rent increases of up to 150 percent in recent years.

‘GOD WILL SURELY PROVIDE’

The provincial information directorate’s director insisted there are no unresolved issues facing either local residents or returnees.

Saifuddin Muhtasem, positioned beside a globe and an Afghanistan-shaped bookshelf, claimed Afghanistan has no unemployed unless individuals simply prefer comfort over work.

He noted the government has formed a nationwide committee to control rent prices and prevent increases.

A 30-year-old civil servant told AFP he had never heard of the committee, adding his rent has doubled in 18 months.

Ahmadi, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said economic problems have worsened since returnees arrived.

The UN warned in September that sustained support is vital for both returnees and host communities.

Georgette Gagnon, deputy special representative of the UN mission in Afghanistan, warned that competition over scarce resources risks fueling grievances, displacement and instability.

Prolonged drought in Jawzjan blankets the air in dust, with the landscape dotted by domed mud homes and grazing camels.

The information director says most of the province’s water is unfit for drinking or farming, pinning hopes on a canal project expected to take two more years to complete.

Muhtasem emphasized that while Afghans are not dying of hunger or thirst, they are in dire need of shelter, and urged international organizations to build homes for returnees in the province.

“As for the rest, God will surely provide.”

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