Afghanistan's displaced people (Forced Migration Review 46)

The case of Maslakh in western Afghanistan is an example of translating Afghanistan’s new IDP Policy into reality.

Providing a minimum standard of living and livelihood opportunities to help anchor those who have returned is critical for the future stability and security of Afghanistan.

Developing a national policy to address the needs of Afghanistan’s IDPs was beset with obstacles and challenges.

A group of people of nomadic lifestyle in eastern Afghanistan has reportedly recently been forcibly relocated because of their lack of identity documents.

With fighting and insecurity likely to remain dominant features of Afghanistan’s landscape in the immediate future, displacement will continue to ebb and flow.

2014 marks a watershed for Afghanistan, with the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) after twelve years, and the very real risks this withdrawal poses to the capacity of the Afghan state.

From the editors 2014 is widely seen as marking a watershed for Afghanistan with its legacy of 35 years of conflict and one of the world’s largest populations in protracted displacement. International military forces are being withdrawn and the country is ‘in transition’, and there is still considerable uncertainty about the capacity of the country to address the challenges of return, integration and reintegration, protection, access to rights, and continuing displacement. FMR 46 contains 21 articles on Afghanistan, plus a mini-feature on Statelessness.