IRC calls for proper screening at Jalozai.

A recent survey in the makeshift Jalozai camp, in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, found that two-thirds of residents cited “armed conflict and persecution” as the main reason for fleeing their homes in Afghanistan. The US-based International Rescue Committee, which conducted the survey in early June, said results indicated that the “majority of Jalozai’s residents had good claims to refugee status”. John Sifton, IRC protection and advocacy coordinator in the provincial capital, Peshawar, told IRIN that one of the aims of the NGO’s survey had been to help UNHCR and the Pakistani authorities, who were currently discussing how to screen residents at Jalozai to determine which were bona fide asylum-seekers. “This survey is meant to help,” said Sifton. “We wanted to give UNHCR and the authorities a sense of what to expect when they do start screening, as well as a better understanding of conditions inside Afghanistan in areas from where these people have come,” he added. Sifton was concerned that a flawed process could see legitimate refugees forced back against their will, otherwise known in international law as “refoulement”. “The majority of people in Jalozai come from areas of genuine persecution. This means it’s all the more important to have good screening procedures, otherwise there is a danger of refugees slipping through the cracks,” said Sifton. The IRC survey found that 85 percent of the 328 Afghan families interviewed had fled from districts north of Kabul, all of which had been exposed to fighting since last year. The results dispelled earlier perceptions that Jalozai’s 50,000 residents were only economic migrants or illegal immigrants and not eligible for asylum. Not surprisingly, families of ethnic Tajik and Uzbek origin were far less willing to return to Afghanistan than their Pashtun counterparts, suggesting that ethnic minorities had valid fears of persecution, it was reported. Most of the residents at Jalozai expressed extreme dismay at the prospect of being forcibly returned to their country amid the current conflict and lack of security. Most were unwilling to return even if humanitarian aid was provided to them there. “I’d rather you kill me here than send me back to Afghanistan,” the survey quoted an elderly Afghan at Jalozai as saying. “Given the bad humanitarian situation in their home areas, we feel it would be better to postpone any screening to a later date,” said Sifton. However, if there had to be a screening process, then it would have to be done “very carefully”, he added.