Food and non-food items have been distributed to 525 migrant families in Paktia province who were recently deported from Pakistan.
According to officials, each family received a bed, three blankets, food supplies, and kitchen utensils.
Nisar Ahmad Nijat, head of the Paktia Department of Disaster Management, said: “The aid is being given to migrants who have recently returned to the country. It includes five items of food and non-food supplies. These families had been surveyed earlier, and the distribution process started today.”
Meanwhile, the newly deported families from Pakistan are urging the authorities to provide permanent shelters and employment opportunities.
Bahadar, another deportee from Pakistan, said: “We cannot afford to build proper shelters for ourselves; even if we manage to cover the roof of a house, we can’t afford doors and windows. We are all poor and destitute people.”
However, Paktia’s local officials said that the process of distributing land plots to the recently returned migrants in a township in Gardez city has begun.
Azizullah Qanit, a representative of the Paktia governor’s office, said: “You are aware that the migrant township has been inaugurated, and currently, one hundred houses are under construction there. An independent committee has been established, and the houses will later be distributed. For those without homes, tents have been allocated, and assistance has been planned for all returnees.”
In the second phase of the forced deportation of Afghan migrants from Pakistan, so far 525 families have returned to Paktia.