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UNHCR expands Afghan repatriation programme

March 15, 2004

ISLAMABAD, 15 March (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Monday extended its 2004 voluntary repatriation programme to Balochistan, adding the road into southern Afghanistan to the northern route through North West Frontier Province that has been used by nearly 7,000 Afghan refugees in less than two weeks.

The start of the operation in Quetta had been delayed by a bloody sectarian attack this month and the subsequent enforcement of curfews. That had blocked the return of any refugees heading toward southern Afghanistan. Despite the delay in Quetta, the voluntary repatriation programme which began on 3 March in the North West Frontier Province capital Peshawar has started strongly. On Monday1,320 people were processed in NWFP and headed back to Afghanistan, raising the total since operations began this month to 6,925.

No refugees went through the Iris Verification Centre in Quetta on Monday, but about 300 refugees in Balochistan were scheduled to use the iris centre on Tuesday and some 1,000 said they were ready to repatriate on Wednesday.

Refugees will also start arriving now from Karachi, which previously had been forced to handle only those heading toward Peshawar. Fifty refugees from Karachi were scheduled to pass through Quetta's iris facility on Tuesday.

All refugees over the age of six years must go through the computerized iris test, which in seconds can determine if the person has previously been checked and received the assistance package. They then leave Pakistan through either Chaman border crossing near Quetta or the Torkham crossing near Peshawar.

The UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme, under which Afghans wishing to go home are given a package of assistance, has helped 1.9 million Afghans to leave Pakistan since it began in 2002. This year some 400,000 Afghans are expected to return.

During the past two years, UNHCR has also helped 408,000 Afghans return from Iran. Another 268,000 Afghans have left Iran without UN assistance.

Refugees on arrival in Afghanistan receive a travel grant, which varies from $3 to $30 depending on the distance, plus $8 per head instead of the package of food and non-food items like household utensils that was given in previous years. Families who dismantle their houses in Pakistan and take the structural poles home receive another $5. In the period 3-14 March, before the start of operations in Quetta, UNHCR assisted 4,322 refugees to return from North West Frontier Province, 994 from Karachi in Sindh province and 289 from Islamabad and other parts of Punjab.

The number returning from NWFP includes those refugees in Shalman camp, which is being closed this month, who chose to repatriate instead of relocating to another refugee camp inside Pakistan. On Monday 732 refugees returned from Shalman to Afghanistan.

The voluntary repatriation programme operates under an agreement signed by UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan that remains in effect until early 2006. The status of Afghans who remain in Pakistan after that date will be decided later. There are an estimated 1.1 million Afghans in refugee camps in Pakistan and an unknown, but substantial number, in other parts of the country.

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