Afghan women and girls returning from Iran and Pakistan urgently need immediate humanitarian assistance. These returnees arrive in communities already burdened by severe economic and environmental challenges. UN Women and CARE warn that sustained support is critical to help them rebuild their lives.
Since September 2023, over 2.43 million undocumented Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, many forcibly. Women and girls make up about one-third of returnees from Iran and nearly half from Pakistan in 2025. Many have never lived in Afghanistan and arrive with no shelter, income, education, or healthcare access.
Harsh Realities for Returnee Women and Girls
Afghanistan faces a severe economic crisis compounded by climate shocks. Returnee women and girls face heightened risks, including poverty, early marriage, violence, exploitation, and extreme restrictions on their freedoms. These vulnerabilities increase as communities struggle to absorb new arrivals.
Susan Ferguson, UN Women Afghanistan Special Representative, highlights the crisis: “Women and girls arriving with nothing into overstretched communities face even greater dangers. They seek to rebuild with dignity but need more funding and women humanitarian workers to reach them.”
Immediate Needs Highlighted by New Report
A report from the Afghanistan Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group, co-chaired by UN Women and CARE, outlines urgent priorities:
- Safe, affordable shelter and livelihoods, plus access to girls’ education, top women’s needs. Yet only 10% of women-headed households have permanent shelter, and nearly 40% fear eviction.
- Movement restrictions, safety risks, and lack of documentation limit humanitarian aid access for women-headed households and single women.
- Girls are losing access to education, as secondary schooling is banned for all girls in Afghanistan.
- Women humanitarian workers at border crossings are vital but face constraints from funding cuts and movement restrictions.
Humanitarian Response Under Strain
International funding cuts have severely weakened humanitarian response capacity. At border crossings, women aid workers report overwhelming arrival numbers and inability to meet even basic needs.
Graham Davison, CARE Afghanistan Director, stresses the urgency: “We see daily the distress and disorientation of women, children, and families. We need urgent support to provide essential services, safe spaces, and protection.”
Afghanistan’s Deepening Crisis
Afghanistan endures one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, caused by decades of conflict, poverty, and natural disasters. The surge in returnees risks pushing fragile communities further into crisis. Immediate, sustained international support is essential to protect vulnerable women and girls and help communities recover.