UNHCR Pakistan

PESHAWAR, 20 July (UNHCR) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has dispatched mobile teams to assist in repatriation after a survey of "new" camps in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where assistance is ending on 1 September, showed that most refugees intend to return to Afghanistan.

The teams, which include one with mobile iris testing equipment that ensures no one receives assistance a second time, will begin processing returning refugees on Tuesday. There are some 190,000 refugees in the new camps, 120,000 in Balochistan and the rest in NWFP.

Residents of the camps, mainly located in insecure areas near the border with Afghanistan, were told at the end of June that all UNHCR assistance - including food, which was not provided to other refugees in Pakistan -- would stop at the end of August. Residents were offered an enhanced aid package if they choose to return to Afghanistan.

In the six camps in NWFP where assistance will end, the percentage who told UNHCR they would repatriate ranged from a high of 90 percent to a low of 48 percent. There was only one camp where less than half the residents indicated they wanted to return home this summer.

Afghan refugees during the repatriation discussion at Landi Karez refugee camp in Balochistan © UNHCR/J. Redden

UNHCR is discussing with the Government of Pakistan where those who remain after the 1 September deadline will live. The government does not want them to continue living in the camps but remains committed to the principle of only voluntary repatriation.

The camps where assistance is ending were established by Pakistan and UNHCR to house Afghans fleeing the war that unseated the Taliban rulers in late 2001. It also includes New Shamshatoo, which was opened near Peshawar a few months earlier. All these camps received food, in addition to the education, health and water assistance provided to the million refugees in "old" camps.

UNHCR felt food assistance was no longer necessary and many of the camps, which were never meant to be more than temporary, were too close to unstable border areas to be secure.

Refugees who opt for voluntary repatriation before 1 September will receive an enhance package of food and non-food items - including tents to provide temporary shelter on arrival in Afghanistan - in additional to the standard UNHCR repatriation package received by more than 200,000 returning Afghans this year.

All refugees receive a travel grant of $3 to $30 depending on the distance to their homes, plus $8 in cash instead of additional assistance such as food that was provided in the first two years of the programme. Those dismantling their homes to take construction materials back to Afghanistan receive an extra $5. All benefits are paid after arrival in Afghanistan.

In addition, families leaving the new camps will receive the full food rations they would get from the World Food Programme in July and August, even if they leave this month.

Repatriation rates from Pakistan have slowed in recent weeks, with the total by mid-July at 210,269, compared to 227,489 a year ago. However, UNHCR expects about 400,000 refugees to return from Pakistan this year - compared to 340,000 last year -- boosted by the repatriation from the new camps.

The UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan operates under the Tripartite Agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which remains in effect until March 2006. UNHCR and Pakistan have begun preliminary discussions on the possible status of those Afghans who do not return to Afghanistan by that date.

Media Contact: Jack Redden, Mobile: 0300 500 1133
Asghar Ali Shah, Mobile: 0300 859 3588


United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan

UNHCR sends teams to help refugees repatriate from new camps in NWFP