Afghanistan’s Displaced People : A Socio-Economic Profile, 2013-2014
Afghans represent the world’s largest protracted refugee population, and one of the largest populations to be repatriated to their country of origin in this century. Between 2002 and 2016, over six million refugees returned to Afghanistan from neig...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/294921533557045480/Afghanistan-s-displaced-people-a-socio-economic-profile-2013-2014 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30267 |
| Summary: | Afghans represent the world’s largest
protracted refugee population, and one of the largest
populations to be repatriated to their country of origin in
this century. Between 2002 and 2016, over six million
refugees returned to Afghanistan from neighboring countries.
In 2016 alone, returnees numbered more than a million. In an
already difficult context, large-scale internal displacement
and return from outside have strained the delivery of public
services in Afghanistan and increased competition for scarce
economic opportunities, not only for the displaced, but for
the population at large. This note aims at contributing to
our understanding of displacement in Afghanistan by
comparing the socioeconomic profiles of three populations:
(i) former refugees who returned to Afghanistan between 2002
and 2014 (“pre-2015 returnees”); (ii) internally displaced
persons (“IDPs”); and (iii) non-displaced persons (“hosts”).
The note captures and compares these groups’ situations at a
specific time-point, using data from the 2013-14 Afghanistan
Living Conditions Survey (ALCS). Importantly, the results
document socioeconomic conditions just prior to the transfer
of security responsibilities from international troops to
the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in 2014, which
was associated with a subsequent decline in aid, both
security and civilian, and a sharp drop in economic
activity. The results presented here cover the largest
return of Afghans to the county following the fall of the
Taliban in 2002, but precede the more recent large-scale
return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan in 2016-17. Future
publications will extend the findings summarized here with
analysis of new and existing data covering this recent
influx. This research is part of an ongoing effort to
document population displacement challenges and solutions in
Afghanistan over time. Data from ALCS 2013-14 establish
baseline socio-economic profiles for returned refugees,
IDPs, and non-displaced hosts. Further research and analysis
now in progress will document how these conditions have
changed since 2013-14, and will distill evidence for policy
to improve socio-economic outcomes among Afghanistan’s
displaced and non-displaced people. |
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