Situation Overview
During 2017, the government has taken key policy decisions regarding registering the undocumented Afghans and institutionalizing measures to support Afghan refugees, IOM Pakistan is supporting the government through participation in the Provincial Taskforce on Documenting the Unregistered Afghan Nationals.
The volume of returning Afghan refugees and undocumented migrants remained steady until the Torkham and Chaman border points were closed for security reasons in mid-February 2017. According to the IOM Weekly Flow Monitoring Snapshot 11th Feb to 16th Feb, a total of 5,619 refugees and undocumented Afghans returned or were deported to Afghanistan since January 2017. As per current estimates, approximately 0.7 million undocumented Afghans continue to reside in Pakistan. In coordination with IOM Afghanistan, IOM Pakistan is supporting information collection, dissemination and inkind assistance to returnees.
At the time of writing, 7,531 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have returned to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in 2017 and the 66,472 currently displaced are set to return in the next year with facilitation from governmental and humanitarian stakeholders. IOM continues to provide critical and multi-sectoral life-saving information to IDP populations through a combination of formal and informal communication channels.