Request For UNHCR
Community-based protection monitoring, engagement and targeted protection support for asylum-seekers
| Operational environment With the end of major hostilities in Afghanistan, after more than 40 years and the consolidation of control by the Taliban led de facto authorities (DfA) in August 2021, conflict is no longer the primary driver of displacement. However, 3.2 million Afghans remain displaced because of conflict within the country and over 6.538 million Afghans are registered refugees or in refugee-like situations in the region, hosted mainly in Iran and Pakistan. An estimated 20,860 refugees and asylum-seekers are living in Afghanistan. Large scale returns of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran, including forced returns, are expected to continue. This is adding to the already high number of refugee returns received from Pakistan following the implementation of the ‘Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan’ in the last quarter of 2023 as well as the high number of deportations of Afghan refugees from Iran in 2025.
The protection environment in the country is furthermore shaped by the change in power and the takeover of the Taliban in August 2021, severely constraining access to basic rights, especially for women and girls, and limiting space for civil society. Protection actors are required to navigate these restrictions to ensure the provision of life-saving services and assistance and to facilitate access to durable solutions for returnee and IDP communities. Priority Problems Afghanistan will remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises in 2026, despite a modest reduction in the overall number of people in need. The Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) 2026 highlights how years of conflict, economic fragility, underinvestment in basic services and the rapid erosion of rights have left large segments of the population with diminished resilience. These chronic stresses are now compounded by worsening food insecurity, large-scale cross-border returns, climate-driven drought, recurrent natural hazards, and the systematic exclusion of women and girls from public life, contributing to the erosion of coping capacities. In 2026, around 21.9 million people – approximately 45 per cent of the population – are projected to require humanitarian assistance, reflecting the combined impact of overlapping shocks and deep structural vulnerability. As per the 2026 HNRP, the crisis has deepened since 2025, severely weakening formal and community-based protection systems and exposing vulnerable people – especially women and children – to heightened risks of abuse, violence, human rights violations. Of the 21.9 million people in need, around 15 million are estimated to require targeted protection services. At the same time, the absence of social safety nets especially affecting new returnees and the lack of specialized services pose severe access constraints for individuals facing specific protection risks. In view of this situation, there is increasing need for the humanitarian and the basic human needs communities to get reliable estimations of population figures and to fill information gaps about access to services, socio-economic conditions, community profiles and protection needs as well as to assess durable solutions – including reintegration – prospects. At the same time, the protection situation in the country is fast evolving, requiring continuous and robust monitoring of protection risks and needs for evidence-based programming, strategic decision making and joint advocacy. At the same time, protection actors need to navigate decrees restricting the right to work for Afghan women employed by NGOs and UN organisations, ensuring women-to-women service provision and the continued access to women and girls. While the operational space for national and international organizations across all sectors has been severely eroded, civil society organizations (CSO), including women-led and women-focused CSOs and leaders have faced a significant reduction in operations and staff capacity, forcing many to cease operations and others to fight hard to remain operational. The renewal of licenses for other civil society organizations, such as organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) has been paused. At the same time, displaced and returnee populations, especially women, rely on community structures and social networks as essential entry points for information sharing, services, and support. Strategic Objectives Strengthened civil society will contribute to the development of localized protection and solutions initiatives. This is particularly important in the context of Afghanistan, where many rural areas are not served through the de-facto authorities, humanitarian or basic human needs partners and where local initiatives will play a crucial role in ensuring both the sustainability of interventions as well as swift response to emergency needs the call was amended and the summary of amendment is as below:
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