Over 2.43 million undocumented Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan since 2023, many forcibly.
Women and girls make up a significant share of returnees and face mounting threats of poverty, violence, and exclusion.
The report highlights urgent needs — shelter, livelihoods, education — and the strain on women humanitarian workers.
UN agencies call for urgent international support to protect returnees and sustain frontline aid efforts.
Afghan women and girls returning from Iran and Pakistan are facing an acute humanitarian crisis, with rising threats of poverty, exploitation, early marriage and violence, according to a new gender alert released by UN Women, humanitarian agency CARE International and partners.
More than 2.43 million undocumented Afghans have returned since September 2023, over half of them forcibly, placing immense strain on Afghanistan’s overstretched humanitarian capacity. The report warned that women and girls, who account for nearly half of returnees from Pakistan and one-third from Iran, are among the most at risk.
Many return to a homeland they have never lived in, without shelter, income, documentation or access to education and healthcare. Afghanistan is already in the grip of a deepening economic collapse and intensifying climate shocks. The latest wave of returns, exacerbated by forced deportations and regional tensions, risks pushing fragile host communities beyond their limits.
In its assessment, the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group highlighted shelter, livelihoods and girls’ education as the most urgent needs identified by returnee women across border provinces like Herat, Nangarhar and Kandahar.
Just 10 per cent of women-headed households have access to permanent shelter and nearly four in ten fear eviction, the report found. Girls are losing access to education, particularly secondary school, as national bans remain in place.
Unaccompanied women and women-headed households face severe mobility restrictions, limiting their ability to access aid, rent housing, or find work. Protection risks at borders are high. Women reported harassment, extortion and gender-based violence by authorities during return journeys, the agency underlined.
Women returning from Pakistan often cite tailoring, handicrafts and factory work as skills they hope to rebuild livelihoods with. Yet, they report limited opportunities and support. Meanwhile, humanitarian staff told the UN that many returnees experience severe psychological distress, with some exhibiting signs of suicidal ideation. A significant gap in mental health services has been identified.
The report also drew attention to the crisis facing Afghan women humanitarian workers, who are essential to delivering services to female returnees but increasingly hindered by donor cuts and Taliban-imposed movement restrictions. Staff at border crossings described being overwhelmed by caseloads, lacking basic facilities such as separate toilets or rest areas and in some cases having to bring children to work due to a lack of childcare.
Despite these conditions, many continue to work under intense pressure. “Witnessing the volume of arrivals and the hardship faced by women, children and families — many distressed, disoriented and without hope — has left a deep impact on all of us responding to this crisis,” said director Graham Davison for CARE Afghanistan.
UN Women Afghanistan’s Special Representative, Susan Ferguson, called for urgent action: “They [returnee women and girls] are determined to rebuild with dignity, but we need more funding to provide the dedicated support they need and to ensure women humanitarian workers are there to reach them.”
The agencies urge the international community to scale up gender-responsive humanitarian aid, fund mental health and protection services and support Afghan women humanitarians, who remain critical to reaching the most vulnerable.