The International Organization for Migration (IOM) distributed winter aid in Afghanistan’s Khost province on Sunday and Monday to 250 Afghan families displaced by fighting in North Waziristan, Pakistan.

IOM has been supporting Afghan families displaced from North Waziristan since fighting broke out last June. To date, over 1,400 displaced Afghan families (7,700 individuals) have been assessed by IOM field teams in Afghanistan’s Khost, Paktika, Kabul and Nangarhar provinces.

The families assessed by IOM had been living in Pakistan for an average of 27 years, making their return to Afghanistan particularly difficult. Furthermore, the majority of the displaced families are now living in host communities along the border, putting a strain on already limited local resources.

Since June, IOM has delivered humanitarian assistance including basic household supplies, hygiene kits, food and emergency shelters to over 1,000 families. The distributions which took place this week supplemented this assistance with the addition of winter clothing and blankets, which will help the families through Afghanistan’s harsh winter months.

Additional winter aid will be distributed to displaced families in the coming weeks, through the generous support of the Government of Japan and the United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund. All of IOM’s response activities have been carried out in close coordination with the Afghan Directorate of Refugees and Repatriation as well as UN and NGO partners.

“IOM continues to identify more and more Afghan families who were forced to return from North Waziristan,” said IOM Afghanistan Chief of Mission Richard Danziger. “Without support, these families face dire conditions, especially during winter.”

Since 2008, IOM has provided vulnerable, undocumented Afghans returning from Pakistan and Iran with humanitarian post-arrival assistance through its Cross-Border Return and Reintegration programme. The programme also supports returnees and communities hosting returnees with sustainable reintegration activities.

For further information please contact Matt Graydon in Kabul (+93 794 100 546, mgraydon@iom.int).