KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Thousands of Afghans returning from Pakistan are facing extreme hardship as they arrive in southern Afghanistan with limited access to basic necessities such as food, water and healthcare, a senior Red Cross official said.
Regis Savioz, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regional director for Asia and the Pacific, visited Inzargai Camp in Kandahar near the Pakistan border, where hundreds of Afghan families have been crossing daily in recent weeks.
“These returns come at a time when millions of Afghans are already in need of humanitarian support,” Savioz said. “Many families I spoke to have lost everything and returned with nothing.”
Some of the returnees are coming back to a country they fled years ago, while others are entering it for the first time, he added.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society, supported by the ICRC, is providing hot meals, clean water, temporary shelter and basic healthcare services at the border. The ICRC is also supplying critical medicines to mobile clinics operated by the Afghan Red Crescent.
Savioz urged the international humanitarian community not to turn away, calling for renewed support for Afghanistan as it continues to suffer from the aftermath of four decades of conflict and a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The latest wave of returns comes amid ongoing deportations and pressure from neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan and Iran, which have sent back hundreds of thousands of Afghans in recent months. Aid organizations warn that without additional international funding and coordination, the fragile humanitarian response could quickly be overwhelmed.
