“These people are living in appalling conditions, still we fear that the worst is yet to come,” warned Jan Egeland, Secretary General of NRC.
"The number of refugees returning is increasing and the wet winter season is approaching. We urgently need to scale up the support. We can still avert a catastrophe," he added.
The number of people returning has sky-rocketed during the last six weeks. 225,000 people have returned from Pakistan and Iran so far in 2016, out of which 136,000 are without the appropriate documents. And the number of undocumented returnees is expected to reach 400,000 before the end of the year. Because these people have not been registered as refugees, they do not receive the same support as registered refugees do upon return.
On 7 September, the United Nations launched an appeal triggered by the recent surge in return of registered refugees and undocumented Afghans from Pakistan. They are requesting US$ 152 million to support the increasing number of returnees and newly displaced.
Most of the undocumented returnees from Pakistan have settled in Nangarhar, a province which still is affected by conflict and already hosts a large number of displaced Afghans.
Download photos for free use for media. (Photos credit: NRC/Jim Huylebroek)
"Many families are living in the open and in over-crowded dwellings, with limited food and sanitation facilities. We fear the spread of contagious diseases," said NRC’s Protection Adviser Will Carter, who has been part of a recent humanitarian assessment in Nangarhar.
"We are in a race against time to provide enough shelter and sanitation facilities to families arriving before the wet winter season," he added.
The Norwegian Refugee Council has started to provide emergency shelter and cash-based support to returnees, with support from donors such as the European Union and Sweden.
It is estimated that one million people will be either returning or newly displaced within Afghanistan by the end of the year. This adds to the more than 3.5 million people in Afghanistan who are already in need of assistance.
See also the humanitarian appeal here
