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125 Afghan families leave Attock for Afghanistan

September 01, 2005

ATTOCK, 01 September (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency mobile teams assisted 125 Afghan families, most of them ethnically Turkman, to voluntary repatriate to Afghanistan from Attock on Thursday under the ongoing UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme. More than 2.6 million Afghans have left Pakistan under the voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan since 2002. The voluntary repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan is being governed by a tripartite agreement between Pakistan-Afghanistan and UNHCR. The agreement, which was earlier due to be expired in March 2006, was extended for another nine months till December 2006 by the three parties in a meeting held in Kabul earlier this week.

At the time of the recent census of Afghans in Pakistan, Attock was home to 38,892 Afghans, living in the area from as early as 1979 after Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. “We had made our minds earlier this year to repatriate to Afghanistan before Ramadan and winter season with UNHCR assistance,” said Abdul Rahim, an Afghan heading back to Jawzjan province of Afghanistan. “Many of our carpet weaving set ups have also moved to Afghanistan during last few years. This also means that our jobs are now in Afghanistan,” Rahim said.

Afghan refugees before their departure to Afghanistan from Attock © UNHCR/A. Shahzad 01 September, 2005

Many of the Afghans living in Attock are ethnically weaving labour force. The census showed that many of the Turkman’s were self employed in their small carpet weaving factories in Attock. Afghans from other ethnicities in Attock were mostly reported doing daily wage or labour work.

Since the start of the UNHCR facilitated voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan in 2002 around 50,000 Afghans have been assisted to voluntary repatriate from Attock. Some 25,842 left Pakistan in 2002, 10,165 in 2003, 6,897 in 2004 and more than 6,000 in 2005. UNHCR mobile teams in Attock recently have received more requests from Afghans in Attock for their voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan. Around 700 Afghan families have already registered themselves to repatriate. The teams so far have processed around 400 families including more than 500 individuals on Thursday.

“The fact that the Turkman community in Attock is repatriating voluntarily to their home land is encouraging as it indicates an increased confidence among Afghans to return home,” said Indrika Ratwatte Assistant Representative of UNHCR in Pakistan.

During the current year more than 300,000 Afghans have already gone back to Afghanistan under the programme. UNHCR estimates around 400,000 Afghans will leave Pakistan during the year 2005. UNHCR is also continuing assisting Afghans from the refugee camps of Kurram and Bajaur in the FATA area where Pakistan announced to close down the camps on August 31. Residents in 27 camps of the two areas were offered the choice of voluntary repatriation or relocation to an existing camp inside Pakistan. Some 72,000 Afghans out of more than 100,000 living in Kurram and Bajaur camps have voluntarily repatriated so far. UNHCR said it will continue processing people that

A young Afghan boy standing in front of loaded truck before his departure to Afghanistan from Attock under the UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme © UNHCR/B. Baloch

wanted to repatriate after the deadline of 31 August. A joint census exercise by the government of Pakistan and UNHCR in March revealed that there were then around three million Afghans in Pakistan.