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UNHCR resumes voluntary repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan

March 7, 2005

Islamabad, 07 March (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) assisted 122 Afghans to voluntarily repatriate to Afghanistan on Monday, on the first day of the UNHCR assisted voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan in the year 2005.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghans resumed after a temporary suspension in the programme in December last year due to the falling numbers of refugees seeking assistance to repatriate and a forthcoming harsh winter. just ended on 6 March the repatriation operation will gather momentum in the course of this week," said Indrika Ratwatte Regional Repatriation Coordinator for UNHCR in Pakistan. "However given the extremely harsh winter conditions and bad weather prevailing in Afghanistan along with the NWFP and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan, we anticipate that significant numbers of Afghans will start repatriating towards the end of the month in warm weather,' said Ratwatte.

More than 2.3 million Afghans have went home under the UNHCR assisted voluntary repatriation programme in the last three years. © NHCR/B.Baloch

The 27 Afghan families returning home on Monday were from the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan that went through the UNHCR Iris Validation Centre (IVC) in Hayatabad Peshawar.

"I came to Pakistan in 1980 six months after the invasion," said the 45 year old Afghan Ghulab Khan while embarking a truck in the UNHCR IVC centre in Peshawar.

"I could not return last year because it was not written in my fate. I had my share of food on the Pakistani soil and now God has decided that I am destined to return back that's why I am taking my whole family with me and I am heading towards Jalalabad.

I want to thank the government of Pakistan; the people of Pakistan, UNHCR and especially those who let me do labour on their land and allowed us to establish a small shop in Charsaada near Peshawar. I will never forget this hospitality," said Khan.

Each returning Afghan is paid $3-30 as a travel assistance grant. An additional $ 12 per person is paid to help the returning Afghans reintegrate in Afghanistan. All the assistance is paid to the returnees at UNHCR encashment centres inside Afghanistan near their destinations.

Last year more than 384,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan to Afghanistan under the voluntary repatriation programme. UNHCR expects 400, 000 Afghans to voluntarily repatriate during the year 2005. Since the start of the voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan in 2002 around 2.3 million Afghans have returned to their country.

UNHCR voluntary repatriation centres in Peshawar, Islamabad, Karachi and Quetta were reopen on Monday to assist Afghans in their plans to return home.

In Quetta, Karachi and Islamabad Afghans visited the UNHCR registration centres asking for guidance on repatriation and also registering their names for repatriation on a desired day.

In the three years of the programme, UNHCR has assisted 2,290,950 Afghans to repatriate from Pakistan. A further 779,000 have returned to Afghanistan from Iran with UNHCR assistance and 321,000 on their own. The combined total of more than three million people who were helped over three years makes it the largest voluntary assisted return programme in the 53-year history of UNHCR.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan is governed by a tripartite agreement between the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR which is due to expire in March 2006.

UNHCR is also helping the government of Pakistan in carrying out the first ever detailed census of Afghans in Pakistan. The census process was concluded in NWFP, Sind and Punjab on March 6, while the dates in Balochistan has been extended till March 10 where heavy rains and floods have created difficulties in carrying out the census of Afghans.