Snapshot Report: Afghan Returnees from Turkey and the EU

This report is the result of the first round of data collection that took place from May to August 2021 with Afghan migrants who returned from Turkey and the EU in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 through IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) and Stabilisation, Reintegration and Resilience (SRR) programmes. During the data collection period, 998 respondents were interviewed in person or over the phone across 102 districts in 17 provinces.

This report is divided into three main sections. The first section summarises the key findings in this report. The second section starts with a description of the methodology and includes the research method, sampling information and limitations. The third section presents the analysis of the data that was collected between May and August 2021. The analysis chapter is further subdivided into eight thematic sections. The first subsection covers the demographics and socio-economic profiles of the return migrants. This is followed by a subsection on the employment situation, occupational sector and income and debt status of the returnees (prior to migration; in Turkey or the EU and in Round 1, which took place from May to August 2021). The third subsection explores the reasons for migration. The fourth subsection examines the migration journey, including the reasons for migrating to Turkey or the EU. The following subsection dives deeper into the reasons for return and then an additional subsection goes into the challenges that returnees experience after returning to Afghanistan. Finally, the last two subsections examine prior migration experiences and re-migration intentions.