Now he’s 200 miles away in Kabul, sleeping in a tent and living on aid. With winter around the corner, the situation is fast deteriorating into a humanitarian crisis. This year, at least another million Afghans are “on the move” inside Afghanistan and across its borders, in what the United Nations warns is an alarming new wave of displaced people. More than 800,000 Afghans – both documented refugees and undocumented deportees – have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran this year. If the United Nations and other aid agencies fail to provide emergency assistance, “it will be a humanitarian crisis,” he said. Even if, like Azad Khan Minumdai, they don’t know what home would hold for them. The busiest border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been even busier than usual this year. Neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan, hosted several million Afghan refugees for four decades but has been pushing them to return home for the last two years. Jumauddin, 27, was born in Pakistan to Afghan parents. They often live in open air,” the U.N.’s Farhad said. “They want us gone from here, but we don’t have anything, not even the money to get back,” Abdulhalim said.
– Huge numbers of refugees displaced by decades of conflict are flowing back into Afghanistan, but they are returning to a country in crisis where more than a million people have been forced to leave their homes this year. The Taliban now controls more territory than at any point since 2001, and United Nations officials say the Kabul government is struggling to deal with the influx of returning refugees from Pakistan, which has been pushing for Afghan refugees to return home, the Washington Post reports. More than 800,000 refugees have returned from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, and tens of thousands more are expected to be sent back from the European Union in the near future, reports Voice of America. The return of tens of thousands of refugees every month while the Taliban conflict creates more "will add very much to the vicious cycle of insecurity and joblessness," Afghan analyst Bashir Bezhen tells the Post. He warns that the government appears "incapable of creating jobs for these people or of improving the economy in the remote places where they live," meaning unemployed youths will be recruited by militants, pushing the country further into crisis. The UN says only 13% of its appeal for $150 million has been raised, and Afghanistan faces a humanitarian crisis as winter approaches. (The iconic "Afghan girl" from a 1985 National Geographic cover has been arrested for allegedly possessing fake Pakistani ID.)