Afghanistan’s health ministry said Tuesday it is expanding health services at Torkham in Nangarhar to cope with the growing number of returning refugees from Pakistan.

According to a statement issued by the ministry, a coordination meeting was recently held to discuss the expansion of health services.

The meeting was chaired by Mawlawi Aminullah Sharif, Director of Public Health in Nangarhar Province, and attended by representatives from various organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and other partners.

The meeting focused on improving emergency preparedness and response, enhancing healthcare support for returnees, and addressing current operational challenges, the statement read.

Officials emphasized the urgent need to strengthen health service delivery in response to the growing number of returning citizens.

As a key outcome, participants agreed to increase the number of health facilities and medical staff at the border. This decision aims to ensure timely access to medical care for all returnees and to better manage the health-related pressures caused by the ongoing influx.

Tens of thousands of Afghans are facing dire conditions in makeshift camps after crossing the border from Pakistan, an Islamic Relief assessment team reported on Monday.

“Many are arriving in Afghanistan without any shelter, food, cash or water, and families told us they had to leave all their possessions – including animals and household utensils – behind as they cannot afford to bring them,” Islamic Relief said in the report.

Ramin Sadat from Islamic Relief was part of an assessment team at the Torkham border crossing in eastern Afghanistan. He said this new wave of returning refugees “is unlike anything I’ve seen before. People arrive in droves, covered in dust, crammed onto trucks, and facing a barren border with no basic services in sight. The first thing that greets them is a harsh, windy storm swirling with dust.”

Tens of thousands of families are expected to arrive in the coming days and months, in the wake of the Pakistan government’s announcement that all undocumented individuals and holders of Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) must leave the country by 31 March 2025 or face deportation.

Since 1 April at least 44,900 people have returned, with around 58% of them children, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Cuts to aid budgets are threatening to undermine years of progress in reducing the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth, and could lead to a rise in deaths, the United Nations has warned.

Globally, there was a 40% decline in maternal deaths between 2000 and 2023, a report by UN agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO) showed on Monday, largely due to better access to essential health services.

That could now go into reverse, the WHO said in a statement accompanying the report which did not mention specific cuts but came in the wake of a foreign aid freeze by the U.S. government and the ending of funding through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for many programmes.

Other donor countries including Britain have also announced plans to cut aid budgets.

“One of the headline messages is that the funding cuts risk not only that progress, but we could have a shift backward,” said Dr Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage at the WHO.

The cuts have had “pandemic-like effects” on health systems globally and could have a “more structural, deep-seated effect,” Aylward added.

The WHO said the cuts were already rolling back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health in many countries, reducing staff numbers, closing facilities and disrupting supply chains for supplies including treatments for hemorrhage and pre-eclampsia.

Cuts to other areas, such as malaria and HIV treatment, would also impact maternal survival, the UN said.

Even before the aid cuts led by the United States, things were backsliding in some countries, and progress has slowed globally since 2016, the report said.

In 2023, despite recent progress, a woman still died roughly every two minutes – around 260,000 in total that year – from complications that were mainly preventable and treatable, it added.

The situation was particularly bad in countries affected by conflict or natural disaster, although the U.S. itself is one of only four countries to have seen its maternal mortality rate increase significantly since 2000, alongside Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

The COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact, the report said: 40,000 more women died due to pregnancy or childbirth in 2021, bringing the total number of deaths that year to 322,000.

“While this report shows glimmers of hope, the data also highlights how dangerous pregnancy still is in much of the world today – despite the fact that solutions exist,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The Ministry of Public Health has announced that Noor Jalal Jalali, the acting public health minister, met with Murdif Al-Qashouti, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Qatari Embassy in Kabul, to discuss the construction of a planned 400-bed hospital by Qatar, the provision of equipment for hospitals, and the enhancement of the capacity of health workers in Kandahar province.

According to a statement, the Acting Minister of Public Health emphasized the importance of improving the capacity of health workers and equipping hospitals with standard facilities to better address patients’ needs and provide essential health services. He considers Qatar’s cooperation to be crucial.

In this meeting, Al-Qashouti assured the IEA of Qatar’s commitment to supporting various health sectors in Afghanistan.

In November 2023, the Ministry of Public Health had announced that Qatar planned to build a 400-bed hospital in Kandahar. In September 2023, reports also emerged about Qatar Charity’s commitment to constructing this hospital.

However, Qatar has not yet started the actual construction of the hospital.

International organizations have repeatedly warned that attention must be given to Afghanistan’s health system, as the country cannot effectively manage patients and combat infectious diseases such as polio and tuberculosis without the support of global organizations.