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UNHCR helps repatriation from North Waziristan

June 6, 2005

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, 6 June (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency will begin on Wednesday to register Afghans in North Waziristan who wish to repatriate from Pakistan because of the government decision to close all refugee camps in this troubled region along the border with Afghanistan.

The government of Pakistan has announced that all the camps in the North Waziristan Agency, housing approximately 30,000 Afghans, will be closed by the end of June and residents have the option to repatriate with UNHCR assistance or relocate to another existing site to be decided later by the government.

UNHCR teams will visit the camps in North Waziristan between Wednesday and Saturday of this week to register those families that want to repatriate. The heads of those families will then go to the town of Bannu, in the neighbouring area of North West Frontier Province, to receive the Voluntary Repatriation Forms (VRFs) that are required to get assistance.

The UNHCR office in Bannu will be open each day from 15 June to 29 June to process the requests. However, only those families registered in North Waziristan this week will be eligible to receive the VRFs in Bannu.

The rest of the residents of the camps in North Waziristan will be relocated to an alternative existing site in Pakistan. No one will be allowed to remain in the present camps after 30 June.

The government has cited security concerns in its decision to close camps in North Waziristan. UNHCR has supported the move, noting that the unrest in the area has made it very difficult to provide services and that Afghans who do not wish to repatriate are being offered the option to remain in Pakistan.

The government of Pakistan has also announced plans to close two camps in Balochistan - Jungle Piralizai and Girdi Jungle -- with residents again given the options of repatriation with UNHCR or relocation to another existing site. In addition, the government has stated that it will soon close refugee camps in other agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) this year but has not finalised the precise dates.

Afghans returning from North Waziristan are eligible for travel grants between $6 and $30 each, depending on the distance to their destination, and a per capita grant of $12 to assist in re-establishing themselves in Afghanistan.

The assistance is paid at UNHCR encashment centres inside Afghanistan. Before receiving the funds, Afghans returning from North Waziristan will have to go through an iris test in the Afghan city of Khost - instead of the usual test inside Pakistan -- to ensure they have not previously received repatriation assistance.