COVID-19 is spreading quickly across Afghanistan and with it, concerns for its disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable among the Afghan people, including returnees.
In Afghanistan, returnees are among the high-risk groups afflicted by the present COVID-19 crisis as they have limited access to basic services, especially healthcare, and also face loss of income and livelihoods because of the countrywide lockdown, International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Afghans have lived through decades of war, but now they are up against an unprecedented challenge that is global in its spread and impact. Ordinary Afghans, like many other poor people around the world, are faced with the dual burden of the novel contagious disease on the one hand, and on the other, the ensuing economic instability brought about by the COVID-induced lockdown.
In its efforts to respond to the coronavirus crisis, IOM is actively supporting the Afghan Ministry of Public Health and WHO in addressing preparedness and emergency coordination through its Migration Health Unit in Afghanistan. However, the multi-pronged threat faced by the returnees continues to remain a major concern.
