As the conflict in Afghanistan enters its fourth decade, Afghan civilians continue to be the main victims. Violence has been increasing in intensity and spreading to previously peaceful areas. The gains made in improving health and education are increasingly fragile due to insecurity issues, but also corruption, and the politicization of aid. But more Afghan refugees returned home from Pakistan in 2010 than in the previous year, despite increased insecurity in Afghanistan, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says. Over 104,000 Afghan refugees returned voluntarily in March-October 2010 (mostly for economic factors, the difficult situation in Pakistan and improvements in security in some provinces of Afghanistan), e.g. a significant increase on the same period last year when 54,000 returned. According to UNHCR, 29 percent of returnees from Pakistan in 2010 (over 30,000 people) opted not to return to their original home areas. Of the many refugees who returned after camps were closed in Pakistan over the past few years, about 45,000 sought refuge in informal settlements in the eastern provinces (Nangahar, Laghman, Kunar). But many had no homes of their own there and had become internally displaced persons (IDPs), often living in informal settlements.

The team

• Ewen McLeod, EXCOM, Afghanistan
• Ingrid Macdonald, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
• Rustam Shah Mohmand, former Pakistan Commissioner for Refugee Affairs
• William Maley, Australian National University
• Frederic Grare, French Ministry of Defense
• Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, University of Tehran
• Rasoul Sadeghi, University of Tehran
• Nassim Majidi, Academic Visitor, University of Oxford
• Bruce Koepke, UNAMA, Tehran
• Daniel Kronenfeld, US Department of State
• Monica Sandri, Protection Advisor, Kabul
• Jacob Rothing, Country Analyst, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh

Synthetic Paper

Coming soon.

Field Papers

• Protracted Displacement in Afghanistan: Will History Be Repeated?, Susanne Schmeidl, August 8th, 2011
• The Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, Frédéric Grare and William Maley, June 30th, 2011
• Internal Displacement in Afghanistan, Sumbul Rizvi, June 25th, 2011
• Protracted Displacement in Afghanistan Can Be Mitigated by a Change in Policy, Jacob Rothing, April 5th, 2011
• The Saga of Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, Rustam Mohmand, February 14th, 2011
• Landlessness and Insecurity: Obstacles to Reintegration in Afghanistan, Ingrid Macdonald, February 9th, 2011
• The Adaptation of Second-Generation Afghans in Iran: Empirical Findings and Policy Implications, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi Shavazi and Rasoul Sadeghi, February 9th, 2011
• The Situation of Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran Nine Years After the Overthrow of the Taliban Regime in Afghanistan, Bruce Koepke, February 4th, 2011
• Urban Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons in Afghanistan, Nassim Majidi, January 25th, 2011
• Can Afghanistan Cope with Returnees? Can returnees Cope in Afghanistan? A Look at Some New Data, Daniel A. Kronenfeld, January 25th, 2011

 Study groups |  Previous page