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UNHCR voluntary repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan passes 2.5 million

July 21, 2005

ISLAMABAD, 21 July (UNHCR) - The number of Afghans repatriating from Pakistan has passed the 2.5 million mark as the UN Refugee Agency's largest voluntary repatriation programme in the world continues to assist refugees to return to Afghanistan.

The programme, initiated in 2002 from both Pakistan and Iran, reached the new landmark a week after the total number of Afghans returning this year from Pakistan with UNHCR assistance passed 200,000.

In addition, more than 1.2 million Afghans have returned from Iran. Total repatriation to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan has now exceeded 3.7 million. "This is an unprecedented number of people returning to their homeland and a testament both to the improving conditions in Afghanistan and the desire of Afghan refugees to participate in the rebuilding of their country," António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva. "Even the 200,000 Afghans who have received UNHCR assistance to go home from Pakistan in 2005 make this our largest voluntary repatriation programme anywhere in the world this year," he said.

An Afghan refugee boy before his departure to Afghanistan with his family at the UNHCR Islamabad departure center © UNHCR /A. Shahzad

"This programme continues to meet the needs of most Afghans in Pakistan even as we discuss with the government of Pakistan solutions for those who still remain."

The UNHCR programme was launched in 2002 from both Iran and Pakistan - the two main countries hosting Afghan refugees -- following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which gave the chance for peace after more than 22 years of war that had caused millions of Afghans into exile.

Nearly 1.6 million Afghans returned from Pakistan that first year, followed by some 340,000 in 2003 and more than 390,000 last year. UNHCR, which estimates 400,000 Afghans would return in 2005, has helped 207,210 to leave Pakistan for Afghanistan so far this year.

The UNHCR repatriation programme from Pakistan is governed by a Tripartite Agreement grouping UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The accord expires next March and the parties are negotiating what arrangements will follow. Under the programme, Afghans wishing to return from Pakistan receive travel grants ranging between $3 and $30 per person, depending on the distance to the destination in Afghanistan, plus a $12 per capita grant to help them re-establish in their homeland. All returnees over the age of six years are given iris recognition tests to ensure they have not previously received repatriation assistance.

An Afghan refugee family sitting on the truck leaving Islamabad departure center for their homeland © UNHCR /A. Shahzad

While voluntary repatriation is the preferred solution for Afghans in neighbouring countries, UNHCR has begun talks with the governments of Iran and Pakistan on how to manage Afghans who remain after the expiry of the Tripartite Agreements. Afghanistan, which was an extremely poor country even before it was devastated by decades of war, could take many years of development before it can absorb all those Afghans who remain outside its borders.