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Afghan repatriation from Pakistan passes 1.9 million

October 28, 2003

ISLAMABAD, Oct 28 (UNHCR) - The number of Afghan refugees that the UN Refugee Agency in Pakistan has helped return home since it began a voluntary repatriation programme in March 2002 passed the 1.9 million mark on Tuesday.

The programme, which continues until 2005, provides each refugee who is verified at the centres in Pakistan with a travel grant, food and various other items such as shelter material on arrival at the destination in Afghanistan.

Although the numbers who returned this year are lower than the 1,563,290 processed in 2002, the more than 337,000 who have so far gone through procedures at the Pakistan verification centres in 2003 make it the largest repatriation carried out anywhere in the world this year by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"This has been a tremendously exciting time to be here," said Hasim Utkan, UNHCR's representative in Pakistan who is completing his four-year assignment this week. "I opened the original UNHCR office in Pakistan when refugees were arriving in 1979 so it was especially rewarding to be here again when we had the opportunity to help 1.9 million Afghans return to their country."

The voluntary repatriation programme has been guided this year by a tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan that established the principle of a gradual, sustainable return of refugees.

"Close cooperation and support from the governments was key to the programme this year," said Mr Utkan, who takes up his new position as UNHCR representative in Thailand in November.

Last week 5,196 Afghan refugees went through verification centres in Pakistan and left for home. The name of each returning refugee is recorded and all over the age of six have an iris test that detects anyone requesting assistance for a second time. Several hundred refugees were assisted on Tuesday, pushing the two-year total past 1.9 million.

Although the number returning to Afghanistan has slowed with the approach of winter, there is still a steady flow and UNHCR will continue to offer repatriation assistance to those needing help in the coming months. Returns accelerate with the arrival of spring in March.

Figures on returns reported in Afghanistan are compiled after refugees receive their assistance, so the totals there lag the departures from Pakistan.

Afghan refugees had arrived in waves over the years since the first crossed the borders of Pakistan and Iran at the time of growing internal unrest and the Soviet invasion in 1979. But the removal of the Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001 triggered an overwhelming return movement.

In addition to the returns from Pakistan, 599,393 have returned from Iran since the start of the programme - 389,349 assisted by UNHCR and 210,044 returning on their own. That puts returns from the two neighbouring countries since the programme began on 1 March 2002 at 2.5 million.

UNHCR estimates there are now about 1.1 million Afghans still in refugee camps in Pakistan, plus an unknown but substantial number in the country's urban areas. Iran hosts 1.8 million Afghans, not all of them refugees.

While refugees will continue to return home, especially as economic opportunities increase in Afghanistan, there are likely be significant numbers of Afghans still in Pakistan after 2005

Under the tripartite agreement, the present voluntary repatriation programme ends in 2005. UNHCR and the Government of Pakistan are already discussing what will follow the current agreement.