KABUL - Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) said on Tuesday that the number of Afghan refugees who have returned from Pakistan and Iran since the start of the year is estimated to be about 900,000 - surpassing all previous years.
According to the MoRR, more than 600,000 returned from Pakistan and 300,000 from Iran.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) has said that there are about 23,000 children among those return-refugees, adding that many of them are suffering from malnutrition.
"Government has failed to deliver on its promises regarding the refugees; the refugees are living in very bad conditions," said an Afghan returnee Rozi Khan.
"We left Pakistan five days ago, now there is no shelter for us to live in and no food to eat, we have a lot of problems," another refugee Mohammad Jan said.
The MoRR has said that it is committed to meeting the challenges facing the refugees in line with its capacities.
"Government has announced the allocation of $100 million USD for the returnees, some financial cooperation has been considered for each returnee," said Hafiz Ahmad Miakhail, media advisor to MoRR.
Recently the UN called on the international community to provide $150 million USD in financial aid to cope with the influx of return refugees.
WFP has said that it shares nearly $67 million USD of the total amount asked by the UN in order to address issues facing the refugees.
"There are about 23,000 children among the families repatriated and these children either suffer from malnutrition or are threatened with malnutrition and we are trying to help these children,' said Wahidullah Miakhail, spokesman to WFP.
Statistics show that in addition to the influx of refugees from Pakistan and Iran, recent violence in the country has also left more than 1.5 million people displaced internally . (Tolonews)