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UNHCR completes repatriation from Pakistan's "new" camps

September 6, 2004

CHAMAN, Pakistan, 6 Sept (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency completed the repatriation on Monday of the last of 82,000 refugees who asked for assistance to return to Afghanistan from the "new" camps established in Pakistan to house those fleeing the 2001 war in their homeland.

Trucks carrying 1,650 refugees from Chaman crossed the border into southern Afghanistan, marking the end to a programme under which special assistance was given to those who wished to repatriate from the camps where UNHCR is ending its assistance.

UNHCR will begin on Wednesday to register those remaining refugees who have opted to relocate to Mohammed Kheil camp elsewhere in Balochistan Province in vehicles rented by UNHCR. The relocations, expected to involve a few thousand individuals, will begin on Friday and be completed in a matter of days.

UNHCR and the Government of Pakistan announced in July that all assistance in the "new" camps would end on 1 September. It was difficult and expensive to provide aid in the camps, mainly located in isolated spots near the border, and there have also been increasing security concerns because of unrest in neighbouring areas of Afghanistan.

The consolidation process, with those choosing repatriation given an enhanced package of assistance, has emptied all nine of the "new" camps in North West Frontier Province. In Balochistan, it is expected that everyone will leave the four camps near Chaman, on the Afghan border, by the end of the relocation exercise.

Mohammed Kheil, which already housed some Afghans from earlier waves of refugees when it was expanded to house the 2001 influx, will continue to operate on the same basis as the nearly 200 old camps in Pakistan. It had capacity available because of repatriation of residents this summer.

However, all food assistance for refugees in Pakistan, which had been provided in the past three years only in "new" camps, ended on 1 September. UNHCR will continue to provide all camps, including Mohammed Kheil, with basic health services, primary education, water and sanitation.

Some 82,000 had returned to Afghanistan by the close of that operation on Monday - more than 43,000 from Balochistan and more than 39,000 from NWFP -- receiving an aid package that included three months of food and a tent.

UNHCR has assisted nearly 2.25 million Afghans to return to their homeland since the start of the voluntary repatriation programme in March 2002, with 340,000 so far this year. Another million Afghans have returned from Iran in the same period.

The repatriation from the "new" camps leaves about a million Afghans living in refugee camps in Pakistan. Any unknown but substantial number of Afghans also live in the urban areas of Pakistan.

Voluntary repatriation under an agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan runs until March 2006. All Afghans are eligible for assistance to return to Afghanistan, including a travel allowance of $3 to $30, depending on the distance home, and $8 per person.