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More than 30,000 Afghans leave Pakistan under UNHCR repatriation programme in March

April 01, 2004

ISLAMABAD, 1 April (UNHCR) - The number of refugees returning from Pakistan to Afghanistan under the UN Refugee Agency's voluntary repatriation programme has surged in recent days to push the March total above 30,000 people -- nearly a dozen times the number who returned in the same month of 2003.

The return of 551 refugees through the UNHCR facilities in Balochistan and 2,537 through North West Frontier Province on the last day of the month brought the March total to 30,733 - dwarfing the 2,683 who returned in the same month a year earlier.

"I am going back with four other families and the decision came after most of the refugees living in our area in Quetta decided to return," said Noor Ullah, a 28-year-old man heading to Kabul who had survived the last eight years by finding work on the streets of the capital of Balochistan.

"I am not even sure what I will do in Kabul and where I will live. But the collective conclusion of the relatives was that this was the best time because UNHCR was providing assistance for transport and food," he said.

The repatriation in March 2003 was slowed by heightened security concerns over the Iraq war, with facilities in Peshawar for NWFP not opening until 9 March and Quetta starting repatriation from Balochistan on 1 April. However, there were also delays this year, with Peshawar starting on 3 March but Quetta delayed for two weeks because of local sectarian violence.

The totals on each of the final two days of March this year - 3,038 returnees on Tuesday and 3,088 on Wednesday - exceeded the entire monthly total for 2003.
Interviews of returning refugees in Peshawar this week showed rising optimism about both security and economic conditions inside Afghanistan, with many saying prospects were now better inside their homeland than in the country where they have arrived in waves over the past quarter century.

If this year follows the pattern of the previous two years of the voluntary repatriation programme, numbers will rise steadily to June and July before declining as winter approaches in Afghanistan. UNHCR estimated before the start of this year's programme that 400,000 Afghans would go home from Pakistan this year.

Under the programme that runs until the beginning of 2006, UNHCR provides a package of assistance to Afghans who want help to return to their homeland. More than 1.9 million Afghans have left Pakistan with UNHCR's help since the beginning of 2002, about 340,000 of them last year.

UNHCR processes returning refugees in all parts of Pakistan but all pass through the verification centres in Quetta and Peshawar, where everyone over the age of six years must go through a computerized iris recognition check. The technology identifies anyone who has previously received assistance, preventing abuse of the UNHCR funds available to help returning Afghans.

Refugees then return to Afghanistan by the border exit points at Chaman for Balochistan and Torkham for NWFP. Once in Afghanistan, refugees go to UNHCR encashment centres to receive a travel grant that varies between $3 and $30 per person, depending on the distance covered, plus $8 in lieu of food assistance and some household items provided in previous years.

The time-lag between refugees leaving Pakistan and receiving their assistance package in Afghanistan means the repatriation figures from Afghanistan are always a few days behind those in Pakistan.

The voluntary repatriation plan is linked to the Tripartite Commission that includes UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The programme provides assistance for those wishing to return until the beginning of 2006 and the status of Afghans who remain in Pakistan after that date remains to be decided.

UNHCR began providing assistance for refugees returning to Afghanistan after the removal of the Taliban government at the end of 2001 triggered a mass movement back to the country.

As well as the returns from Pakistan, UNHCR has assisted more than 410,000 Afghans to repatriate from Iran since the programme started in March 2002. Nearly 270,000 more have left Iran without UNHCR assistance during the same period.