Forced Returns at Torkham Crossing Leave Afghan Families in Crisis as Humanitarian System Buckles

TORKHAM, Afghanistan – An escalating wave of forced returns from Pakistan is pushing thousands of vulnerable Afghans into destitution, with aid agencies warning of a spiraling humanitarian crisis at the Torkham border crossing.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) issued a stark alert, reporting that approximately 500 Afghan families are being compelled to return each day through this major transit point. “The conditions facing these families are deeply concerning,” the NRC stated, emphasizing that the mass arrivals are exacerbating Afghanistan’s already fragile situation.

A Vulnerable Return with Nothing
According to field reports from the NRC and other aid workers on the ground, families are arriving with little more than the clothes on their backs, stripped of resources and savings.

• Shelter: Many lack any form of adequate housing, often crowding into makeshift tents or damaged structures with extended family.

• Livelihoods: Finding employment is described as a “severe challenge” in an economy shattered by decades of conflict, international sanctions, and a collapse in formal banking. Former wage-earners find few opportunities.

• Food and Essentials: Immediate hunger is a primary concern, with families struggling to secure sufficient food. Access to clean drinking water, healthcare, and education for children remains critically limited.

A Perfect Storm of Crises
The forced returns are colliding with one of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies. Afghanistan continues to grapple with economic paralysis, widespread poverty, and a near-total collapse of public services. This makes the reintegration of returnees—many of whom had lived in Pakistan for years or decades—almost impossible.

“The situation is particularly worrying as Afghanistan has no capacity to absorb this influx,” an NRC spokesperson explained. “Those returning under pressure risk falling directly into a survival crisis.”

System Under Unprecedented Strain
The NRC’s warning follows a recent report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which documented that more than 5.2 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan since the beginning of 2025, a staggering figure that underscores the scale of the displacement reversal.

Humanitarian organizations stress that this volume of returns is placing “unprecedented pressure” on Afghanistan’s limited and underfunded aid infrastructure. Host communities, themselves devastated by years of drought, economic decline, and instability, are now being asked to share scant resources, creating potential for new tensions.

Calls for Urgent Action
Aid groups are united in their message: without immediate and sustained international support, the consequences will be catastrophic. “Forced returnees risk falling deeper into abject poverty, placing an intolerable strain on communities already at the breaking point,” the NRC warned.

The appeal is for two critical steps:

1. Sustained Funding: A major scale-up in humanitarian financing to provide emergency shelter, food, water, and healthcare for new returnees.

2. Coordinated International Action: A structured response that supports both immediate needs and longer-term reintegration, including livelihood programs and basic service provision, to foster stability in receiving areas.

As the daily flow of families continues unabated at Torkham, the international community faces a test of its commitment to preventing a already profound human tragedy from deepening further.

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