Afghanistan ranks 6th among countries with most IDPs: UNHCR

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recently said that Afghanistan is the sixth country in the world with the largest number of internally displaced people (IDPs).

UNHCR has warned of the increase in the number of IDPs in Afghanistan, adding that their number has been increasing in this country for five years.

According to UNHCR, the bad economic situation, successive droughts, and insecurity in the past years are the reasons for the increase of IDPs in Afghanistan.

“Asylum seekers, migrants and internally displaced people mostly lack adequate health care, countries have an obligation to impartially maintain access to health services to meet human needs,” said UNHCR.

However, a number of IDPs who have been displaced due to the recent deadly earthquake in the southeastern provinces of the country, said that on the threshold of winter season, the lack of shelter, weak economy and unfair distribution of aid by organizations are their major problems.

“We became homeless in the recent earthquake, and we have been surveyed several times, but we have not been helped, and there are those who have received help several times, but we are facing many economic problems,” said Ehsanullah, a Paktia resident.

“All facilities have been taken from us, we have been helped, but it is not enough,” said another resident.

Meanwhile, the problems of IDPs are similar in other provinces, especially in Kandahar, where the recent floods have left many families homeless.

The government and aid agencies should help us because we have lost everything,” said Nematullah, a Kandahar resident.

UNHCR has also stated that in recent days, it has helped more than two thousand IDPs in Charikar city of Parwan province, adding that the aid cannot meet these families’ needs.