Returning to Uncertainty: UNHCR Cash Assistance Offers Lifeline to Afghan Returnees
Returning to Uncertainty: UNHCR Cash Assistance Offers Lifeline to Afghan Returnees
In October 2023, tens of thousands of Afghans—many born and raised in exile—crossed back into a homeland they barely knew, compelled by mounting pressure to leave neighbouring countries such as Iran and Pakistan.
Most returned with little more than memories and uncertainty. What awaited them was a fragile landscape marked by poverty, insecurity, and economic precarity.
UNHCR met those arriving at the border, providing them with warm meals, a temporary place to rest, mental health support, and legal advice.
UNHCR’s emergency cash assistance – provided in notes or by card - in its Encashment Centres is providing a lifeline.
I crossed the border with nothing, the cash I will receive today will help me rent a house and buy food. It gave me dignity.
Says Sayaf, 35, as he steps onto Afghan soil for the first time in his life.
UNHCR’s Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) is vital as it provides immediate, flexible, and dignified support to vulnerable refugee returnees who often arrive with no assets or income. It helps them meet urgent needs like food, shelter, and transport while reducing harmful coping strategies such as child labour or early marriage. Targeting the most at-risk groups, MPCA empowers returnees to prioritize their own needs and stabilizes households through secure, transparent, blockchain-powered cash delivery.
Sayaf, his wife, and their seven young children were born and raised in Pakistan. Forced to return to a country they had never known, their arrival in Kabul was filled with both fear and hope. Families like Sayaf’s carry more than belongings—they carry dreams of rebuilding, and an urgent need for stability.
To meet these growing needs, UNHCR Afghanistan has scaled up its humanitarian response through a network of Encashment Centres strategically located near major border crossings or in cities in Nangarhar, Kandahar, Herat, and Kabul. These centres serve as humanitarian lifelines—offering not just cash, but also health screenings and vaccinations, mine risk awareness education, protection and legal counselling, and referrals for housing, livelihoods, and access to basic services like education and healthcare.
But it is digital innovation that is transforming how aid reaches the most vulnerable.
In 2024, UNHCR Afghanistan transitioned to a digitalized cash assistance programme, adopting secure delivery modalities such as mobile money platform by m-Hawala and prepaid cards by HesabPay—to deliver fast, transparent, and secure payments to returnees. This pilot initiative is revolutionising how humanitarian assistance is delivered, especially in remote, hard-to-reach, and high-risk areas.
Digital cash gives people more than money—it gives them independence. It means they don’t have to fear of risk being extorted, or fear for their safety while traveling to their places of origin.”
Says Ahmad Faheem Sattar, a UNHCR staff member at the Kabul Encashment Centre.
This new approach empowers families to make decisions based on their own priorities—whether it’s housing, food, transport, healthcare, or school fees. It promotes financial inclusion, enhances transparency, and protects the people we serve from many of the risks associated with physical cash distributions.
For Haji Mohammad, a 62-year-old returnee from Pakistan, the Encashment Centre in Kabul provided both material support and emotional refuge.
It was the first place in years where I felt safe and supported.
After four decades in Pakistan, Haji Mohammad returned with 25 family members, almost all of them born in exile. He worries about whether the land he once owned in Paktika still exists. But UNHCR’s digital cash assistance is helping him focus on the present.
With the money, I’ll buy a tent and some food. It’s not much—but it’s enough to start again in my own country.
For families displaced for decades, for children stepping into Afghanistan for the first time, the journey home is marred by the unknown. But thanks to UNHCR’s evolving response—including the bold step towards digital financial assistance—we can help pave a pathway forward.
UNHCR Afghanistan is deeply grateful for the generous support of its donors, whose contributions make this vital work possible.
