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Afghan refugee camp to close: nearly half prefer repatriation over relocation

February 13, 2004

PESHAWAR, 13 Feb (UNHCR) - Nearly half of those living in the Afghan refugee camp of Shalman have said they would like to return to Afghanistan when the UN Refugee Agency closes it in March as part of a programme to consolidate camps with shrinking populations.

The rest of the residents, 53 percent, told a survey by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that they would prefer the option of relocating to another refugee camp in North West Frontier Province, Kotkai in Bajaur Agency of the border tribal area.

Shalman, now holding about 10,000 Afghan refugees, is closing because of a dwindling population and an isolated, waterless location near the Khyber Pass that has made provision of humanitarian assistance difficult and expensive. The survey of intentions, which covered more than 96 percent of the population thought to still live in the camp, was carried out in January.

Kotkai camp, in an area with ample local water, can easily accommodate the 820 families from Shalman who have asked to relocate. The plan is for UNHCR to escort refugees in convoys carrying about 50 families per day starting on 8 March, with all 5,372 individuals who chose to relocate moving in the space of about 16 days.

Those 47 percent of the families opting to return to Afghanistan, 4,841 individuals, will be assisted under UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programme, which provides a small travel grant, food and some non-food items for those refugees wishing to re-establish themselves in their homeland.

Shalman and Kotkai are both among the "new" camps that were established to shelter the 300,000 refugees fleeing the 2001 war in Afghanistan that ended rule by the Taliban. The total population of the camps - nine, including Shalman, in North West Frontier Province and six in Balochistan - now house about 200,000 refugees.

UNHCR last year closed the "waiting area," an unofficial camp at Chaman on the border between Balochistan and Afghanistan. More than half the 19,000 residents opted to return to Afghanistan, while the rest were relocated to join other refugees in the "new" camp of Mohammad Kheil.

UNHCR intends to continue the process of consolidating the new camps this year and next. Plans for closing two camps in Balochistan await agreement with the government of Pakistan on the alternative camp where those who do not wish to repatriate will be relocated. Further consolidation in NFWP is also under discussion.

Under its voluntary repatriation programme, UNHCR has assisted some 1.9 million Afghans to return to Afghanistan from Pakistan since the fall of the Taliban and has made provision to assist up to 400,000 more to go home this year.

Most of those returns have been from urban areas of Pakistan. But hundreds of thousands of residents of the camps, which number some 200 counting long-established camps, have also gone home in the past two years.