As the number of Afghans returning from Iran and Pakistan continues to rise — many under coercion — women and girls are arriving in a country where their rights, safety and prospects remain under severe threat, according to a new United Nations-led report.
Since September 2023, more than 2.4 million undocumented Afghans have returned from the neighboring countries, placing growing strain on Afghanistan’s fragile humanitarian system. Roughly half of the returnees from Pakistan are women and girls, while their proportion among returnees from Iran reached 30 percent in June, the report found.
The findings, published by the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group — a coalition led by UN Women and the United Nations Population Fund — highlight how displaced women and girls are bearing the brunt of Afghanistan’s overlapping crises.
Women arriving at border crossings report having little to no protection. Many lack shelter, clothing, food, or even a place to go. “A tent would be my only protection,” one woman told UN Women. “I have no appropriate clothes or hijab to wear, no food to eat, no contact number and no relatives to stay with.”
Those traveling without a mahram, or male guardian, face even greater danger. At border points like Torkham and Islam Qala, women described harassment, extortion and threats.
“They took 6,000 rupees (about $21) and gave me only 2,000 back,” said one woman near Torkham. “Now I do not know where to go with this money.” Others reported “mistreatment and harassment… causing fear and distress.”
Once inside the country, returnees encounter heightened risks of gender-based violence, early and forced marriage, trafficking and survival sex, made worse by economic desperation and the lack of support services.
In Kandahar, a humanitarian worker recounted an incident involving a widow with four daughters. “She was looking to see if she could sell one or two daughters to someone here to have money for survival,” the worker said.
Safe spaces and psychosocial support remain critically scarce, particularly at border crossings where many women arrive traumatized and without resources.
Across the provinces, returning women cite shelter, livelihoods and access to education for girls as their most urgent needs. “We need a place to stay, a chance to learn and a way to earn,” said one woman in Nangarhar Province.
Only 10 percent of women-headed households live in permanent shelters, and 38 percent fear eviction, according to the report. In Herat, 71 percent of women said they had faced disputes over rent, while nearly half of all women-led families lived in inadequate housing.
Economic opportunity is also slipping away. Women who once worked in trades like tailoring or embroidery say they are now unable to resume work due to a lack of tools, travel restrictions, and limited social or legal infrastructure.
With deportations and forced returns expected to continue, humanitarian agencies are calling for a major scale-up in gender-responsive support services — including access to safe shelters, mental health care, vocational tools and schooling for girls.
UN Women and its partners have urged the international community to increase funding and maintain sustained engagement to address both the urgent and long-term needs of Afghan women and girls returning under increasingly difficult conditions.
