Noorgal, Kunar, Afghanistan – Four months ago, Nawab Din returned to his home village of Wadir, high in the mountains of Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, after eight years as a refugee in Pakistan.
Today, he lives in a tent on his own farmland. His house was destroyed nearly three weeks ago by the earthquake that has shattered the lives of thousands of others in this region.
“We are living in tent camps now,” the 55-year-old farmer said, speaking at his cousin’s shop in the nearby village of Noorgal. “Our houses were old, and none were left standing … They were all destroyed by big boulders falling from the mountain during the earthquake.”
Din’s struggle captures the double disaster facing a huge number of Afghans. He is among more than four million people who have returned from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The August 31 earthquake killed about 2,200 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes, compounding a widespread economic crisis.
“We lost everything we have worked for in Pakistan, and now we lost everything here,” Din adds.
Until four months ago, he had been living in Daska, a city in Pakistan’s Sialkot District, for eight years after fleeing his village in Afghanistan when ISIL (ISIS) fighters told him to join them or leave.
“I refused to join ISIL and I was forced to migrate to Pakistan,” he explains.
His exile ended abruptly this year as the Pakistani government continues its nationwide crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals.
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