GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

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Page last updated on February 12, 2013

Disputes - international:
Afghan, Coalition, and Pakistan military meet periodically to clarify the alignment of the boundary on the ground and on maps; Afghan and Iranian commissioners have discussed boundary monument densification and resurvey; Iran protests Afghanistan's restricting flow of dammed Helmand River tributaries during drought; Pakistan has sent troops across and built fences along some remote tribal areas of its treaty-defined Durand Line border with Afghanistan which serve as bases for foreign terrorists and other illegal activities; Russia remains concerned about the smuggling of poppy derivatives from Afghanistan through Central Asian countries

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 2,972 (Pakistan) (2011)
IDPs: 481,877 (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in the south and west due to drought and instability) (2012)

Illicit drugs:
world's largest producer of opium; while poppy cultivation was relatively stable at 119,000 hectares in 2010, a poppy blight affecting the high cultivation areas in 2010 reduced potential opium production to 3,200 metric tons, down over 40 percent from 2009; the Taliban and other antigovernment groups participate in and profit from the opiate trade, which is a key source of revenue for the Taliban inside Afghanistan; widespread corruption and instability impede counterdrug efforts; most of the heroin consumed in Europe and Eurasia is derived from Afghan opium; vulnerable to drug money laundering through informal financial networks; regional source of hashish (2008)

NOTE: The information regarding Afghanistan on this page is re-published from the 2013 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Afghanistan Transnational Issues 2013 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Afghanistan Transnational Issues 2013 should be addressed to the CIA.