Afghan Refugees and Undocumented Afghans

By the end of 2021, a total of 2.7 million refugees globally were from Afghanistan (UNHCR, 2022). Most of them were hosted in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan.  As of March 2022,1.4 million registered refugees lived in Pakistan  (UNHCR, 2022a). and 780,000 Afghans holding refugee cards resided in the Islamic Republic of Iran (UNHCR, 2022b). Another estimated 2.1 million undocumented Afghans lived in the Islamic Republic of Iran as of March 2022 (ibid.).

IOM has recorded the return of nearly 870,000 undocumented Afghans from the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan in 2020 and another 1,170,501undocumented Afghans between 1 January and 28 November 2021 (IOM, 2021).

In its Afghanistan Situational Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP), UNHCR projects that there will be more than 2.5 million Afghan refugees and another 1.4 million undocumented Afghans and Afghans of other statuses by the end of 2022.