UNHCR Pakistan

Quetta, 27 April (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) assisted13,000 Afghan refugees to head back to Afghanistan from Balochistan after the resumption of the voluntary repatriation program from the province on March 15, 2004. The total number of Afghan refugees repatriated voluntarily from Pakistan reached 74,548 on Monday.

Repatriation started on 15 March with more than 180 families approaching the scheduling center on the first day. "We are maintaining an average of around 100 families daily from the UNHCR's Quetta Baleli Departure Centre where Afghans mostly return from Quetta and surrounding areas to Afghanistan", said Zelmira Sinclair, Head of the UNHCR Repatriation Unit in Quetta.

Ms. Sinclair added that refugees returning from Quetta were being pre-registered in two Quetta locations after which they are assigned a date to report to the Departure centre with their belongings and families to leave for their country.

Two Afghan refugees returning to Ghazni from Quetta Baleli Departure Center © Baloch.B

"For Afghan refugees voluntarily returning from camps in Balochistan we have mobile units who register them on their locations, scan them for the iris verification test and then send them off", she said .

All returning Afghans above the age of six have to go through an iris identification test to be eligible for the UNHCR assistance package provided inside Afghanistan that ranges from $3-30 depending on the distance covered. An additional $8 is also paid for food to every returnee.

"The rate of return from Balochistan this year is higher than last year", said Ms. Sinclair. In 2003, the total number of families repatriated from camps and urban centres of Balochistan was 13,966 families comprising 76,860 individuals. This year, in one month we had approximately 10,000 individuals repatriating; a significant increase if we compare it with the less than 2,000 who repatriated last year during the same period".
Muhammad Anwar, an Afghan refugee returning from Quetta to Kandahar, says that higher rate of wages inside Afghanistan was one among many other reasons due to which many Afghans were opting to repatriate this year. "The wages even in Quetta are dropping down day by day. I use to earn rupees 200-250 a day working as a daily wage labourer now its only 100-120 an average, while the same job can earn me rupees 300-350 in Afghanistan", said Muhammad Anwar.

Baseer Ahmed, another Afghan returning to Kabul, attributed his decision to return to start a normal life. "We came to Quetta in 1992 with the fall of Najib's regime in Kabul. It's been long 12 years and now its time to return. I am tired of being a refugee for around 12 years. We had trips back and forth to asses the situation in past years and this year we decided to move. I am taking my whole family and all the belongings that I had in Pakistan pointing towards the full truck load carrying his home belongings".

However Mohammad Reza, an Afghan refugee running self help schools for Afghans in Quetta said that returning refugees still had problems while taking a decision to go back home. "One most important problem for Afghans returning from urban centres is the continuation of education for their children in Afghanistan. If people are returning to villages and they have children in schools over here, it takes them a while to make a decision", commented Reza.

"But even then there are families returning back to Afghanistan. Around 40 of our students have gone back with their families this year. Afghans love their land and they want to return. With improved social structure one might see more Afghans returning".

He said that a generation has grown up in Pakistan for whom their country now was a foreign land. If they will decide at any time to go back Reza simply had no idea on that.

Apart from the regular voluntary repatriation process UNHCR also introduced an initiative called Facilitated Group Returns (FGR) from Pakistan. Under this scheme, the agency takes accounts of the refugees intending to voluntarily repatriate in a group but can't do that because of a problem inside Afghanistan that hinders the return. Elders of the group are facilitated for a Go and See visit inside Afghanistan and then the agency tries to resolve the needs of the group if possible. During a same exercise UNHCR repatriated around 500 families from different parts of the country. 200 families under this scheme went from camps in Balochistan last year.

With the present pace of returns the UN Refugee Agency hopes to reach the two million land mark of Afghan voluntary returns in few weeks after the start of the program from Pakistan in March 2002.

UNHCR assisted 1.5 million Afghans in 2002 and 340,000 in 2003 to return home.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Ruud Lubbers said earlier this month in Islamabad that UNHCR expected figure of 400,000 returns from Pakistan this year might need an adjustment to 500,000, if the present rate of return was maintained from the country.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan runs under a Tripartite Agreement involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR that ends in March 2006.

Media Contact: Babar Baloch, Mobile: 0320-478-3615
Asif Shahzad, Mobile: 0300-532-2724


United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan

UNHCR facilitates 13,000 Afghan refugees to return from Balochistan