During 2014 and the first six months of 2015, at a time when most international troops were withdrawing from Afghanistan, internal displacement has been on the rise. It has been driven by an increase in violence by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and counterinsurgency operations by national and, to a lesser extent, the remaining international security forces. Operations have increasingly involved the use of mortars, rockets and grenades in populated areas.
IDMC estimates that as of the end of June 2015, six months after the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), at least 948,000 people were living in displacement as a result of conflict and violence. The figure includes around 103,000 people newly displaced in the first six months of 2015. Significant new displacements have taken place in Kunduz province since April 2015 and in Badakshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Faryab, Ghazni, Kapisa and Maydan Wardak provinces since June 2014. These, and continuing instability in Helmand province and central areas of the country, add to a crisis that has been ongoing since at least 2001.
The escalating conflict has led to a growing number of civilian casualties. People’s lives, including those of internally displaced people (IDPs), are also threatened by the presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in refuge and return areas. Most IDPs would prefer to integrate locally rather than return, although there have been reports of some IDPs, including people recently displaced in Kunduz, who have chosen to go back to their homes in conflict-affected areas prematurely in an effort to maintain their agricultural incomes.
Disasters brought on by natural hazards and development projects continue to cause people to flee their homes, including in some cases people already displaced by conflict and violence.
IDPs struggle to meet specific needs resulting from their displacement, in particular when it comes to accessing water, food, adequate housing and employment. These challenges are most pronounced in areas where they are inaccessible or invisible to humanitarian responders and as their displacement becomes more protracted.
Host communities are generous in their support for new arrivals, but their resources become depleted rapidly. This in turn helps to drive rural to urban displacement, which has continued to increase over the last two years. Urban IDPs tend to live in informal or unplanned settlements without authorisation, dispersed among other groups of urban poor including economic migrants and returning refugees, all of whom face the threat of forced eviction.
The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, has acknowledged the need to respond to internal displacement, but implementation of the country’s landmark policy on IDPs adopted in February 2014 has been set back by contested presidential elections in April 2014, delays in forming a unity government and ongoing conflict. Authorities also lack the political will to take concrete steps at the provincial level. As of July 2015, the policy had yet to deliver any positive tangible impact for IDPs themselves in terms of addressing outstanding gaps in the prevention of displacement, the delivery of protection and assistance during displacement, and facilitating durable solutions for the large numbers trapped in protracted displacement.
Provincial action plans are urgently needed to inform practical steps in addressing IDPs’ needs and facilitating their achievement of durable solutions. This would include the improvement and regularisation of a number of informal urban settlements where local integration is both appropriate and IDPs’ preferred settlement option.
The government and its international humanitarian partners have struggled to respond to new displacements while maintaining much-needed assistance to long-term IDPs. Donors have continued to support the response beyond ISAF’s withdrawal, but the country’s displacement crisis has been dwarfed by emergencies elsewhere in the world. This has led to the diversion of limited funding and resources from chronic to acute needs.
Implementation of the national policy on IDPs is first and foremost a national responsibility, but the international community also has a role to play in following up on measures taken, or lack thereof. This is particularly important given protracted IDPs’ increasing vulnerabilities and the need to better coordinate humanitarian and development responses in order to facilitate durable solutions.