Islamabad [Pakistan], February 19 (ANI): More than 18,000 Afghan nationals have travelled back to Afghanistan from Pakistan's Rawalpindi and Islamabad in January this year, with repatriations witnessing a rise in repatriations in the second fortnight of the month slightly higher than the first fortnight, Dawn reported.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the deportation of Afghan citizens from the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Rawalpindi has witnessed a rise. Between January 16-31, 291 heads of households were interviewed through a flow monitoring registry (FMR) form, while 9,846 Afghan citizens who returned to Afghanistan were identified through border crossing points of Torkham, Chaman, Ghulam Khan, Badini, and Bahramcha.

At least 824,568 individuals have returned to Afghanistan since September 15, 2023, while 18,577 of this total has returned since January 2025, according to the IOM. Most of the Afghan returnees are people aged between 18-59 years and individuals aged between 5-17 years of age. Of the children aged below 10 years who crossed the border, 502 had received polio vaccination, Dawn reported.

According to the bi-weekly report, 10 per cent of the returnee households were women-headed households. During the same period, no-child headed households were recorded. More men than women returned during the said period. As per the report, fear of arrest (78 per cent) and inability to pay house rent (32 per cent) are the most common reasons mentioned for the return by the heads of households travelling back to Afghanistan.

Households also mentioned inability to pay household utilities (30 per cent), no employment (26 per cent), and communal pressure to return (9 per cent) as the reasons for the return to Afghanistan. According to the report, the fear of arrest and communal pressure to return have both increased in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, 89 per cent of the Afghan citizens have mentioned family reasons as the reason for choosing their family destination and 67 per cent mentioned the availability of assistance in Afghanistan as a reason. At least 17 per cent of Afghan returnees hinted that they wanted to obtain nationality in Afghanistan.

During the interviews, most of the respondents reported finding income opportunities (98 per cent), arranging for livelihoods (89 per cent), resettlement in a new city (87 per cent), and shelter (71 per cent) as the most important challenges they could face after they returned to Afghanistan.

Some of the respondents said that the availability of medicine and health facilities (36 per cent), access to education (35 per cent), and availability of clean drinking water (32 per cent) as their primary challenges. Only a small number of respondents called security (8 per cent) a challenge, Dawn reported.

On average returnees pay USD 513 from their place of origin in Pakistan to their final desitnation in Afghanistan. The cost for travelling from their border to their final destination in Afghanistan (USD 86) is more than the cost from their place of origin to the border (USD 67), according to the report.

All Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan moved with personal belongings. The report said, '97 per cent reported carrying cash, followed by household items (95 per cent) and productive assets (53 per cent).'

According to the report, the majority of returnees travelled from Balochistan (43 per cent), followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (28 per cent) and Sindh (20 per cent). Some people came from Punjab (7 per cent) and Islamabad Capital Territory (2 per cent). The districts of origin in Pakistan are usually situated near the border, like Quetta (24 per cent) and Killa Abdullah (10 per cent), according to Dawn report.

Some of the people who returned to Afghanistan also came from Karachi (20 per cent) and Peshawar (19 per cent), which are located far away from the border in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, respectively. In Afghanistan, most returnees also travel to provinces that are located closer to the border, including Kandahar (32 per cent), Nangarhar (23 per cent) and Kabul (13 per cent). (ANI)