Afghanistan 2002
05/14/2002

The woman pictured here is a widow. UNHCR initially rejected this woman’s case to return to Afghanistan because of inconsistencies in her story, and her case is being referred to the senior verification officer. Because of the difficulties associated with being a single woman in Afghanistan, she had joined another family to travel back home. UNHCR, to guard against fraud and “recycling,” verifies that each family is a legitimate family unit and is intent on returning to Afghanistan to stay. About 20% of all cases have been rejected by UNHCR. There have been cases of refugees forming families, traveling to Afghanistan, collecting their assistance package, and returning to Pakistan and going through the process again. UNHCR is encouraging single women to register as heads of household, but in the context of Afghanistan women without a male relative have almost no identity and may face threats to their security. As a result, single women will often join a family with a male head to return to Afghanistan. This practice raises the concerns that their adopted families may not give these single women their full portion of their transport allowance or reintegration assistance once they arrive in Afghanistan. Special consideration should be given to the problems female-headed households and single women have.