Focus on return of qualified Afghans

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on return of qualified Afghans Reeling from drought, poverty and decades of war, Afghanistan is hardly the place to enjoy the golden years of one's life. But for Abdul Hamid Mobarez, a 70 year-old Afghan intellectual, nationalist, writer and former journalist, returning to his country after years abroad couldn't be more natural. Just hours before he boarded a UN flight to Kabul on Tuesday, he told IRIN why he was returning to Afghanistan - and why now, more than ever, others should follow. "Afghans have no reason to stay in a foreign country now that there is peace in our homeland," Mobarez said. "All professional Afghans should return. Your country needs you now more than ever." Enthusiastic words from a member of Afghanistan's vast scattered diaspora. This week, Mobarez was the first Afghan professional to return under an accord signed last Thursday between the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Afghanistan's new interim government, a programme aimed at enabling thousands of skilled Afghan workers and professionals to return home and help rebuild their country. Called upon by the new minister of information and culture, Rahin Makhdum, to return, this former chief of the official Bakhtar news agency, three-times governor and father-of-three, has yet to learn what his new role will be. "I will serve my country as a writer or a journalist or however the government deems fit," he said, adding: "My only ambition is to serve my country." An IOM press release on Tuesday indicated that Mobarez would serve as deputy minister of information and culture. A strict pragmatist, Mobarez maintained: "I am optimistic, but I know there are a great deal of difficulties ahead of us. The world has made a decision to help us for peace, and I, like many Afghans, cannot ignore them. Peace in my country will benefit not just the Afghan people, but help the region as well - particularly Central Asia." Mobarez is one of 50 people who will be working for the interim authority until 3 July. The first of possibly thousands from the Afghan diaspora who wish to return and assist the new interim administration - and one IOM's Return of Qualified Afghans (RQA) programme is ready to facilitate. Established in December after the demise of the Taliban regime, and based on an earlier programme assisting Afghans from Pakistan to return two years ago, RQA is set to expand further. "We plan to return 1,500 people over the next two years, but we hope to assist more. The need and desire is definitely there," the IOM programme coordinator, Daiva Vilkelyte, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. IOM aims to facilitate the immediate and longer-term return of Afghan expertise and know-how to assist in the rebuilding of the country's depleted human resources. The RQA global database, supported by IOM missions worldwide, now has an applicant pool of nearly 1,600 people looking to go back, 20 percent of whom are women. Professional qualifications range from agriculture and banking through to education and health. On arrival, the returning Afghans receive a US $400 installation grant and a US $400 monthly salary for six months. The IOM/RQA programme covers all costs, including transportation. As for the impetus of the programme, Vilkelyte said the government needed qualified people, particularly those in the health and education sector, because relying on local capacity was simply not enough. Having just returned from Kabul herself, she said most ministries did not even have computers to operate with. "Now that the agreement has been signed, we can begin moving these people," she said. "The ministries cannot afford these intellectuals, so this is where IOM steps in, paying their salary subsidies," she explained. According to Vilkelyte, the needs situation in Kabul was set to stabilise in the future as some people have already returned. However, the situation was not the same in the provinces. "The Ministry of Public Health said they could hire the entire database if candidates would agree to go to the provinces," she said, noting people still had strong reservations about going to remote, more insecure areas of the country. Just last week the Afghan information and culture signed nine individual contracts for qualified Afghans registered with the IOM/RQA database. Coming from the United States, Canada and Germany, they will return in early February to begin their initial six-month contracts. They include a theatre administrator, who currently works as a hairdresser in the US; an orientalist from Mainz University to work in the archaeology preservation and restoration department of the ministry; and two journalists, who will work with the Afghan News Agency and the weekly magazine "Promise". Subsequent placements will include nine qualified nationals, including two lawyers and a librarian, in jobs with the Ministry of Higher Education. Commenting on the challenges the programme faced, Vilkelyte said traditionally there had always been friction between those who stayed in the country and those who left. "Some of these people are so poor, it will be difficult for them to understand why the diaspora arrivals are receiving salary subsidies," she said. "This is an unsolvable problem. Local people sometimes do not know how little they know." But if the IOM was looking for a role model, they could not have found a better one than Mobarez, a view shared by his daughter back in Paris. "I am very proud of my father," Dr Nilab Mobarez, a surgeon and former professor at Kabul University, told IRIN on Tuesday from the French capital. "He has done a lot for his country and he still wants to do more. I always knew he would one day return," she said. Such determination seems to run in the family, as the 41 year-old will soon follow in her father's footsteps. Currently working to raise money for the establishment of a new children's hospital in Kabul, she is set to return in February. "I myself love Paris, but I cannot leave my country in this situation," she said. She now hopes to resume her teaching post in Kabul, and has been given every indication that she can. Asked why she was returning, she said: "Our country has been completely destroyed. We should do something for it, and we can." While Afghans living abroad had the right to decide for themselves what they should do, she maintained that all Afghans had an obligation to do their part. Her father was even more forthcoming. Having never given up his Afghan citizenship, he now prepares to play an active role in his country's reconstruction process - a process expected to cost billions of dollars over the next decade. Regarding his ethnicity - a contentious issue for many in the country - he is adamant. "I am pure Afghan. Real Afghans don't talk about ethnicity. This was a creation of our neighbours to divide and weaken us," he said. "Now we must stand united," he stressed. On the more immediate question of where he would sleep on his first night back in Afghanistan, his answer was more reflective. "I don't know," he smiled. "But I will be in my country."