Pakistan — Quarterly Flow Monitoring of Undocumented Afghan Returnees from Pakistan (July - September 2022)

IOM Pakistan collects data on the outflows of undocumented Afghan migrants at the Torkham and Chaman border crossing points in an effort to better understand the migration movements of undocumented Afghan migrants returning to Afghanistan from Pakistan. This report is part of the European Union funded project ‘‘Displacement Tracking Matrix Regional Evidence for Migration Analysis and Policy (DTM REMAP)”. Key findings during this reporting period are:

• Between July and September 2022, 14,806 undocumented Afghan migrants spontaneously returned to Afghanistan, including 3,007 through the Torkham border point and 11,799 through the Chaman border point. Border authorities facilitated the return of 843 individuals due to the lack of legal documentation to remain in Pakistan. Therefore, information concerning these 843 individuals is not included in the count.
• Although IOM identified 14,806 undocumented Afghan returnees at two border crossings, this may not reflect the total number of undocumented Afghan returnees. Moreover, for this study, only the head of household or representative of the family were interviewed. This means that the number of interviews conducted by the enumerators is lower than the number of returnees recorded by IOM. Between July and September 2022, IOM interviewed 1,208 respondents.
• The average family size of returnees was 8 individuals and 11 per cent of all returnees recorded during the reporting period were categorized as vulnerable persons.
• All returnees were carrying household items, personal belongings and cash when surveyed. They also traveled with additional items, such as productive assets (84%), transportation vehicles (5%) and livestock (2%).
• The top 3 challenges returnees expected to face in Afghanistan were: arranging livelihood, settling into a new city and finding better income opportunities