Afghanistan - Flow Monitoring Snapshot (5-11 May 2024) [ENG]

IOM Afghanistan's DTM Flow Monitoring activity, initiated at the beginning of 2024, seeks to quantify and better understand the mobility dynamics at Afghanistan’s borders. On 10 January 2024, DTM began deploying field teams at four border crossing points with the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRN) and Pakistan (PAK), expanding to another border crossing point Ghulam Khan as of 11 February (see map below for the locations of all five crossing points), to conduct two interlinked exercises. The first is a headcount of all individuals entering or leaving Afghanistan (including returnees), also called Flow Monitoring Counting (FMC), to gauge flow volume. The second is a survey of randomly selected Afghan national individuals or groups entering or leaving Afghanistan, also called the Flow Monitoring Survey (FMS), to understand the profiles, motivations, and vulnerabilities of the target population. The inflow from Pakistan increased over the monitoring period. This may be related to media reports and speculation about a potential resumption of the repatriation process, targeting primarily Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders, starting from April 15, 2024. However, according to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs as of April 26, the repatriation process has not yet begun. Additionally, the Government of Pakistan recently extended the validity of 1.3 million PoR cards for Afghan refugees in Pakistan up to June 30, with their repatriation planned for after the repatriation of ACC holders (Voice of America News). This snapshot provides key findings combining various IOM data sources, including DTM Afghanistan’s FMC and FMS activities, DTM Pakistan’s Flow Monitoring of Afghan returnees, and IOM Afghanistan’s Cross-Border Post-Arrival Humanitarian Assistance (CB-PAHA) program, for the period 5 to 11 May 2024. For more information about methodology, see the section in the last page of this report titled “IOM INFLOW DATA.”