UNHCR Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, 06 August (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) assisted 2,618 Afghan refugees to head back to Afghanistan from Pakistan on Thursday, raising the number of returnees to 253, 409, who have gone home from Pakistan since the voluntary repatriation programme started in March 2004.

"It has been three years that I became a refugee in Pakistan. Afghans are indebted to Pakistan for hosting a large refugee population for more than 25 years. Now I think we have to make a decision to return as an important election is near and we need to take part in that", said Khuda-e-Nazar an Afghan refugee returning from Roghani camp near Chaman Pak-Afghan border to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Khuda-e-Nazar said that war and drought have uprooted millions of Afghans from their homes inside Afghanistan and they were compelled to become refugees. "It's a terrible thing to become a refugee, but you are just helpless and want to run for the life and safety of your family and relatives", he said.

UNHCR assisted 143,882 refugees to return from North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 50,873 from Balochistan, 31,155 from Sindh and 27,499 from Punjab/Islambad.

All refugees over the age of six years must go through computerised iris tests in either Quetta, Balochistan, or Peshawar, NWFP, the two main cities before the exit point. 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 cash instead of additional assistance such as food that was provided in the first two years of the programme.
UNHCR has also announced an enhanced package for Afghan refugees leaving from the newly established camps in Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks. Six out of 12 of these new camps are in Balochistan hosting a population of around 120,000 and the other six in NWFP has a population of 65000. According to a joint decision of the Government of Pakistan, UNHCR and the World Food Programme, assistance will be withdrawn from these camps after August 31, 2004.

"We have placed mobile teams in Chaman and Mohammad Kheil areas of Balochistan to register Afghan refugees voluntarily wishing to repatriate", said Zelmira Sinclair, Senior Repatriation Officer UNHCR Quetta.

Ms. Sinclair said that UNHCR also has set up an Iris Verification Centre in Chaman to facilitate the Iris test of Afghan refugees returning from Chaman camps.

An Afghan returnee woman, Khair un Nisa, returning to Takhar province with her husband, said that it was a collective family decision to repatriate. "My husband told me that we have to go back and I agreed. He said that there were better opportunities to make a living now as the cost of living in Pakistan was going up and daily wages were getting lower day by day".

UNHCR assisted more than 2.1 million Afghans to Afghanistan from Pakistan since the repatriation started in 2002 and expecting figure of 400,000 return from Pakistan during 2004 might need an adjustment to 500,000, if the present rate of return was maintained from the country.

The UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan operates under the TripartiteAgreement between UNHCR and the government of Afghanistan and Pakistan, whcih remains in effect until March 2006.

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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan

More than 250,000 Afghans return from Pakistan under Voluntary Repatriation Programme