Refugees in Torkham ask for relocation to home areas

KABUL (TOLOnews): Returning refugees who have moved to temporary camps in the Torkham crossing area asked the current government to speed up the process of registration and the distribution of aid and to transfer them to their home areas as soon as possible.

The refugees asked the Islamic Emirate to address their challenges before the arrival of the winter.

“We want the government to work for the people who are here and return them to their areas and create a job for them there,” said Abdul Waris, a returned refugee.

“We want them to send us to our areas where if we don’t have land or something else, we will complain on the spot,” said Merajddin, a returned refugee.

Meanwhile, the officials of the Afghan Red Crescent Society said that food aid cannot solve the challenges of these returnees permanently, but they emphasize that after this they will pay more attention to the migrants who move to remote areas of the country.

“We try to bring some aid here, but our main goal is to help the refugees in remote areas,” said, Matiul Haq Khalis, the president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

Local officials in Nangarhar said that since a month and a half ago, 55,000 families have returned to the country from the Torkham crossing, and the registration and biometric process of many of these families has been completed.

“55,000 refugees who entered the country through Torkham for one and a half months have returned to the country,” said Qureshi Badlon, the local official in Torkham.

The return of Afghan immigrants from the Torkham crossing has increased since the announcement of the deadline by the Pakistani government, and according to the officials, an average of 500 families return to the country via this route every day.