UN: Afghan opium prices skyrocket following ban on poppy cultivation
The price of opium in Afghanistan surged to $750 per kilogram in 2024, a tenfold increase compared to two years prior, according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Wednesday.
The spike follows the Taliban government's ban on poppy cultivation in 2022 and destruction of crops.
This led to a significant reduction in opium production, the report released on Wednesday said. But drug traffickers are profiting greatly due to the resulting high prices.
The report revealed that Afghanistan's opium stockpiles at the end of 2022 were estimated at 13,200 tons, enough to potentially meet global demand for Afghan opiates until 2027.
Ghada Waly, executive director of UNODC, warned the profits from the drug trade are being funnelled into trans-national organized crime groups, which are destabilizing Afghanistan, the region, and beyond.
She stressed the need for a coordinated strategy to combat trafficking networks and provide alternative livelihoods for Afghan farmers.
Many Afghan farmers are facing financial hardship because they can no longer cultivate opium due to the ban. The UNODC urged urgent support for these farmers, including offering alternatives to prevent them from returning to poppy cultivation.
Afghanistan was for years the world's primary source of opium.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Nowhere to run: The Afghan refugees caught in Israel's war on Iran
On Friday, June 13, when Israeli missiles began raining down on Tehran, Shamsi was reminded once again just how vulnerable she and her family are. The 34-year-old Afghan mother of two was working at her sewing job in north Tehran. In a state of panic and fear, she rushed back home to find her daughters, aged five and seven, huddled beneath a table in horror. Shamsi fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan just a year ago, hoping Iran would offer safety. Now, undocumented and terrified, she finds herself caught in yet another dangerous situation – this time with no shelter, no status, and no way out. 'I escaped the Taliban but bombs were raining over our heads here,' Shamsi told Al Jazeera from her home in northern Tehran, asking to be referred to by her first name only, for security reasons. 'We came here for safety, but we didn't know where to go.' Shamsi, a former activist in Afghanistan, and her husband, a former soldier in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan before the Taliban returned to power in 2021, fled to Iran on a temporary visa, fearful of reprisals from the Taliban over their work. But they have been unable to renew their visas because of the cost and the requirement to exit Iran and re-enter through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan – a journey that would likely be too dangerous. Life in Iran has not been easy. Without legal residency, Shamsi has no protection at work, no bank account, and no access to aid. 'There was no help from Iranians, or from any international organisation,' she said. Internet blackouts in Tehran have made it hard to find information or contact family. 'Without a driver's licence, we can't move around. Every crossroad in Tehran is heavily inspected by police,' she said, noting that they managed to get around restrictions to buy food before Israel began bombing, but once that started it became much harder. Iran hosts an estimated 3.5 million refugees and people in refugee-like situations, including some 750,000 registered Afghans. But more than 2.6 million are undocumented individuals. Since the Taliban's return to power and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, thousands of Afghans, including activists, journalists, former soldiers, and other vulnerable people, have crossed into Iran seeking refuge. Tehran province alone reportedly hosts 1.5 million Afghan refugees – the majority of them undocumented – and as Israel targeted sites in and around the capital, attacking civilian and military locations during the 12-day conflict, many Afghans were starkly reminded of their extreme vulnerability – unprotected and unable to access emergency assistance, or even reliable information during air raids as the internet was shut down for large periods of time. While many fled Tehran for the north of Iran, Afghan refugees like Shamsi and her family had nowhere to go. On the night of June 22, an explosion shook her neighbourhood, breaking the windows of the family's apartment. 'I was awake until 3am, and just an hour after I fell asleep, another blast woke me up,' she said. An entire residential apartment was levelled near her building. 'I prepared a bag with my children's main items to be ready if something happens to our building.' The June 23 ceasefire brokered by Qatar and the US came as a huge relief, but now there are other problems: Shamsi's family is almost out of money. Her employer, who used to pay her in cash, has left the city and won't answer her calls. 'He's disappeared,' she said. 'When I [previously] asked for my unpaid wages, he just said: 'You're an Afghan migrant, get out, out, out.'' For all Afghans trapped in Iran – both those forced to flee and those who stayed in their homes – the 12-day conflict with Israel has sharply reawakened feelings of trauma and displacement. Furthermore, according to the Iranian health authorities, three Afghan migrants – identified as Hafiz Bostani, Abdulwali and Habibullah Jamshidi – were among the 610 people killed in the recent strikes. On June 18, 18-year-old Afghan labourer Abdulwali was killed and several others were injured in an Israeli strike on their construction site in the Tehranpars area of Tehran. According to the victim's father, Abdulwali left his studies in Afghanistan about six months ago to work in Iran to feed his family. In a video widely shared by Abdulwali's friends, his colleagues at the construction site can be heard calling to him to leave the building as loud explosions echo in the background. Other Afghans are still missing since the Israeli strikes. Hakimi, an elderly Afghan man from Takhar province in Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera that he hadn't heard from three of his grandsons in Iran for four days. 'They were stuck inside a construction site in central Tehran with no food,' he said. All he knows is that they retreated to the basement of the unfinished apartment building they were working on when they heard the sound of bombs, he explained. The shops nearby were closed, and their Iranian employer has fled the city without paying wages. Even if they have survived, he added, they are undocumented. 'If they get out, they will get deported by police,' Hakimi said. During the conflict, UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett urged all parties to protect Afghan migrants in Iran, warning of serious risks to their safety and calling for immediate humanitarian safeguards. Afghan activist Laila Forugh Mohammadi, who now lives outside the country, is using social media to raise awareness about the dire conditions Afghans are facing in Iran. 'People can't move, can't speak,' she said. 'Most have no legal documents, and that puts them in a dangerous position where they can't even retrieve unpaid wages from fleeing employers.' She also flagged that amid the Iran-Israel conflict, there is no government body supporting Afghans. 'There's no bureaucracy to process their situation. We dreaded an escalation in the violence between Iran and Israel for the safety of our people,' she said. In the end, those who did manage to evacuate from the most dangerous areas in Iran mostly did so with the help of Afghan organisations. The Afghan Women Activists' Coordinating Body (AWACB), part of the European Organisation for Integration, helped hundreds of women – many of whom fled the Taliban because of their activist work – and their families to flee. They relocated from high-risk areas like Tehran, Isfahan and Qom – the sites of key nuclear facilities which Israel and the US both targeted – to safer cities such as Mashhad in the northeast of the country. The group also helped with communicating with families in Afghanistan during the ongoing internet blackouts in Iran. 'Our capacity is limited. We can only support official members of AWACB,' said Dr Patoni Teichmann, the group's founder, speaking to Al Jazeera before the ceasefire. 'We have evacuated 103 women out of our existing 450 members, most of whom are Afghan women's rights activists and protesters who rallied against the women's education ban and fled Afghanistan.' Iran recently announced plans to deport up to two million undocumented Afghans, but during the 12-day conflict, some took the decision to move back anyway despite the dangers and hardships they may face there. World Vision Afghanistan reported that, throughout the 12-day war, approximately 7,000 Afghans were crossing daily from Iran into Afghanistan via the Islam Qala border in Herat. 'People are arriving with only the clothes on their backs,' said Mark Cal, a field representative. 'They're traumatised, confused, and returning to a homeland still in economic and social freefall.' The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has voiced grave concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation for Afghans in Iran, adding that it is monitoring reports that people are on the move within Iran and that some are leaving for neighbouring countries. Even as Israeli strikes came to a halt, tensions remain high, and the number of Afghans fleeing Iran is expected to rise. But for many, there is nowhere left to go. Back in northern Tehran, Shamsi sits beside her daughter watching an Iranian news channel. 'We came here for safety,' she says softly. Asked what she would do if the situation worsens, Shamsi doesn't hesitate: 'I will stay here with my family. I can't go back to the Taliban.' This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
At least 1.2 million Afghans forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, says UN
ISLAMABAD (AP) — At least 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, the U.N. refugee agency said Saturday, warning that repatriations on a massive scale have the potential to destabilize the fragile situation in Afghanistan. Iran and Pakistan in 2023 launched separate campaigns to expel foreigners they said were living in the country illegally. They set deadlines and threatened them with deportation if they didn't leave. The two governments deny targeting Afghans, who have fled their homeland to escape war, poverty or Taliban rule. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that of the 1.2 million returning Afghans, more than half had come from Iran following a March 20 government deadline for them to leave voluntarily or face expulsion. Iran has deported more than 366,000 Afghans this year, including refugees and people in refugee-like situations, according to the agency. Iran's 12-day war war with Israel also has also driven departures. The highest number of returns was on June 26, when 36,100 Afghans crossed the border in one day. 'Afghan families are being uprooted once again, arriving with scant belongings, exhausted, hungry, scared about what awaits them in a country many of them have never even set foot in,' said Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative in the Afghan capital, Kabul. He said women and girls are particularly worried, as they fear the restrictions on freedom of movement and basic rights such as education and employment. More than half of Afghanistan relies on humanitarian assistance. But opposition to Taliban policies and widespread funding cuts are worsening the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations cutting back on basic services like education and health care. Iran urges foreigners to leave quickly Iran's attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, said Saturday that foreigners in the country illegally should leave as soon as possible or face prosecution, state media reported. 'Foreign nationals, especially brothers and sisters from Afghanistan whom we have hosted for years, help us (so) that illegal individuals leave Iran in the shortest period,' the official IRNA news agency quoted Azad as saying. Iranian authorities said in April that out of more than 6 million Afghans, up to 2.5 million were in the country illegally. Iran's top diplomat in Kabul, Ali Reza Bikdeli, visited the Dogharoun border crossing with Afghanistan and promised to facilitate the repatriation of Afghans, state TV reported. Iranians have complained about the increasing presence of Afghans in recent months, with some accusing them of spying for Israel since the outbreak of the war. The Taliban pledge amnesty and help Earlier this month, on the religious festival of Eid Al-Adha, the Taliban prime minister said all Afghans who fled the country after the collapse of the former Western-backed government were free to return, promising they would be safe. 'Afghans who have left the country should return to their homeland,' Mohammad Hassan Akhund said in a message on X. 'Nobody will harm them. Come back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace." On Saturday, the Taliban said a high-ranking ministerial delegation traveled to western Herat province to meet some of the Afghans returning from Iran. The officials pledged 'swift action to address the urgent needs of the returnees and ensure that essential services and support are provided to ease their reintegration,' according to a statement from the Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat on X. Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities have set a June 30 deadline for some 1.3 million Afghans to leave. Pakistan aims to expel a total of 3 million Afghans this year. ___ Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report.
Associated Press
6 hours ago
- Associated Press
At least 1.2 million Afghans forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, says UN
ISLAMABAD (AP) — At least 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, the U.N. refugee agency said Saturday, warning that repatriations on a massive scale have the potential to destabilize the fragile situation in Afghanistan. Iran and Pakistan in 2023 launched separate campaigns to expel foreigners they said were living in the country illegally. They set deadlines and threatened them with deportation if they didn't leave. The two governments deny targeting Afghans, who have fled their homeland to escape war, poverty or Taliban rule. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that of the 1.2 million returning Afghans, more than half had come from Iran following a March 20 government deadline for them to leave voluntarily or face expulsion. Iran has deported more than 366,000 Afghans this year, including refugees and people in refugee-like situations, according to the agency. Iran's 12-day war war with Israel also has also driven departures. The highest number of returns was on June 26, when 36,100 Afghans crossed the border in one day. 'Afghan families are being uprooted once again, arriving with scant belongings, exhausted, hungry, scared about what awaits them in a country many of them have never even set foot in,' said Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative in the Afghan capital, Kabul. He said women and girls are particularly worried, as they fear the restrictions on freedom of movement and basic rights such as education and employment. More than half of Afghanistan relies on humanitarian assistance. But opposition to Taliban policies and widespread funding cuts are worsening the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations cutting back on basic services like education and health care. Iran urges foreigners to leave quickly Iran's attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, said Saturday that foreigners in the country illegally should leave as soon as possible or face prosecution, state media reported. 'Foreign nationals, especially brothers and sisters from Afghanistan whom we have hosted for years, help us (so) that illegal individuals leave Iran in the shortest period,' the official IRNA news agency quoted Azad as saying. Iranian authorities said in April that out of more than 6 million Afghans, up to 2.5 million were in the country illegally. Iran's top diplomat in Kabul, Ali Reza Bikdeli, visited the Dogharoun border crossing with Afghanistan and promised to facilitate the repatriation of Afghans, state TV reported. Iranians have complained about the increasing presence of Afghans in recent months, with some accusing them of spying for Israel since the outbreak of the war. The Taliban pledge amnesty and help Earlier this month, on the religious festival of Eid Al-Adha, the Taliban prime minister said all Afghans who fled the country after the collapse of the former Western-backed government were free to return, promising they would be safe. 'Afghans who have left the country should return to their homeland,' Mohammad Hassan Akhund said in a message on X. 'Nobody will harm them. Come back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace.' On Saturday, the Taliban said a high-ranking ministerial delegation traveled to western Herat province to meet some of the Afghans returning from Iran. The officials pledged 'swift action to address the urgent needs of the returnees and ensure that essential services and support are provided to ease their reintegration,' according to a statement from the Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat on X. Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities have set a June 30 deadline for some 1.3 million Afghans to leave. Pakistan aims to expel a total of 3 million Afghans this year. ___ Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report.
