“All of us at the United Nations are suffering from a reinforcement of the ban on females working with us…We are simply unable to operate without females,” said Arafat Jamal, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Representative to Afghanistan, a day after agencies warned that the de facto authorities’ measures have impacted life-saving assistance for hundreds of thousands of people.

Last Sunday, de facto Afghan security forces prevented national female staff members and contractors of the UN from entering the global body’s compounds in Kabul, the UN Mission in the country, UNAMA, said in a statement on Thursday.

Centres closed

And in light of the restrictions, on Tuesday, UNHCR temporarily closed its cash and support centres for vulnerable Afghans, both at the border and in areas where so many people have been returning from Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere since the start of the year.

The registration process involves providing biometric data, along with screening and interviews – work that would be “entirely impossible without Afghan female workers”, the UNHCR official stressed, noting that more than one in two returnees are women.

“This was an operational decision,” Mr. Jamal continued. “It is not a decision taken to punish anyone or to make a statement, but simply it demonstrates that we cannot work without female workers in certain circumstances.”

Since the start of the year, some 2.6 million Afghans have returned from neighbouring countries – “many not by choice”, UNHCR said.

Mr. Jamal noted that the pace of returns continues to surge, with nearly 100,000 people crossing back from Pakistan in the first week of September alone, “stretching our capacities and the capacities of this country to the limit”.

Aftershocks reverberate

Echoing those concerns, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that Afghanistan is still reeling from the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Kunar and Nangarhar provinces on 31 August, followed by multiple severe aftershocks.

At least 1,172 children have died, more than half the entire death toll, said UNICEF Country Representative in Afghanistan, Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale.

Briefing journalists in Geneva via videolink, Dr Oyewale described meeting young victims of the disaster in Machkandol in Nangahar, three girls and a young boy rescued from the emergency.

“For the girls it was even more sobering; they were lost; they have lost their families, their homes have been destroyed,” he said. “The family livestock have died. And for these young girls and this young boy, the future is completely bleak.”

The provinces impacted by the earthquake are mountainous and extremely remote, the UNICEF official continued.

Jammed dirt roads

“It is filled with steep terrain, difficult navigation…it took us about three and a half hours’ drive, 40 minutes of which was on paved road and the rest was through rough mountain dirt roads, a lot of turns with jammed with oncoming vehicles and especially with falling rocks on the road.”

Humanitarians warn that the earthquake has compounded Afghanistan’s existing acute problems.

In total, the crisis has claimed more than 2,164 lives, at least 3,428 people have been injured and at least 6,700 homes have either been destroyed or badly damaged.

“Behind these numbers are children left standing alone in the rubble and families torn apart in the blink of an eye… UNICEF is literally going the extra mile and doing whatever it takes to reach these children and families with the support they need,” Dr Oyewale insisted.