Focus on repatriation of Afghan refugees

Standing outside the Soleymankhaneh voluntary repatriation centre (VRC) near the Iranian capital, Tehran, the seven members of the Hoseyni family appear calm and relaxed. Just minutes before boarding a bus back to Afghanistan - a country they fled 18 years earlier - they were looking forward to the prospect of finally rebuilding their lives. As his father nodded approvingly, 21-year-old Mojtaba told IRIN: "I'm not nervous to return. I want to go back."

To date, some 35,000 families like the Hoseynis have gone home from Iran since the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) joint voluntary repatriation programme was launched on 9 April. Six months into the campaign, more than 300,000 Afghans have returned - three-quarters of them with assistance from UNHCR.

Jointly managed by UNHCR and the Iranian government's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA), implementation of the programme began five days after the signing of a tripartite agreement between Iran, Afghanistan and UNHCR in Geneva. As part of the programme, which envisioned some 400,000 assisted returns during the first year of the programme, returnees are provided with a small monetary grant, as well as an assistance package of food and non-food items to facilitate their return.

And while the operation is quite similar to a parallel programme under way in neighbouring Pakistan, from which well over 1.5 million Afghans have so far been repatriated, circumstances in Iran are quite different.

Unlike in Pakistan, very few Afghans in Iran actually lived in refugee camps. "They are settled, and their living conditions and standard of living in Iran are good - compared with Afghanistan and Pakistan," the UNHCR chief of mission in Tehran, Philippe Lavanchy, told IRIN.

This view is shared by BAFIA. In an earlier interview with IRIN, BAFIA Director-General Ahmad Hoseyni remarked that conditions in Iran and Pakistan respectively were totally "incomparable". While determined that Afghans living in Iran must return to their homeland, he conceded that many Afghans were deeply rooted in Iran, one million of them having been born there.

Under the terms of the tripartite accord, all Afghans in Iran - whether registered with the government or not - should have access to the programme, an issue which earlier this year proved a contentious one with Tehran. BAFIA maintains that 2.35 million Afghans took part in the government registration exercise conducted in 2001, but believes that hundreds of thousands of others did not. Since June, unregistered Afghan families applying for exit permits from BAFIA deregistration centres have been referred to VRCs for assisted repatriation.

Explaining the process, Moslem Adeli, a BAFIA deputy for Tehran Province, told IRIN that as part of the first stage of the process, prospective returnees handed in a slip of paper recording their participation in last year's survey, which was then entered into computerised records. "Those people who participated in the survey were allocated a 12-digit number," he said.

After photographs of participants are taken, one is placed in a BAFIA data bank, while an additional photo is placed in their LP - the travel document allowing them to leave the country within a fixed period of time. "Their intent is to leave the country, which is why we issue an LP," Adeli said.

After getting their travel documents, participants approach the interview section of UNHCR to determine the voluntary nature of their decision to return.

"The voluntary nature of the decision to return is vital," Lavanchy emphasised. "It is also extremely important that the voluntary repatriation of the Afghans in Iran takes place gradually and in an organised manner which preserves peoples' intrinsic dignity. We want people to be able to make the decision to return in their own time, without pressure," he explained.

UNHCR and BAFIA personnel have separate working areas in each VRC. This enables UNHCR staff to conduct individual and confidential interviews with all prospective returnees to verify that their decision to return to Afghanistan was indeed voluntary. This has proved to be one of the most important parts of the operation, and UNHCR has worked particularly hard to ensure that Afghans do not depart against their will.

The interviewers note key details of each returnee on an additional document called a Voluntary Repatriation Form (VRF). The VRF, issued by UNHCR and signed by the prospective returnee, serves as proof of the voluntary nature of the repatriation. Moreover, it also serves as an identification and travel document upon the person's return to Afghanistan, as well as documentation of entitlement to reintegration assistance.

Leaving the interviewer's cabin, Abdol Rashid, a 36-year-old disabled street vendor from Afghanistan's central Parvan Province told IRIN he could no longer afford to live in Iran and had to return, despite the fact he had no land, house or job waiting for him. Such comments are fairly typical in Iran, where it is becoming more difficult for Afghans to rent accommodation and find work.

Just last year, the government - grappling with its unemployment problem - introduced a law penalising employers who hired illegal workers. That being the case, those Afghans who do find jobs - mostly menial work deemed undesirable by Iranians - do so illegally as it is virtually impossible for people like Abdol Rashid to get a work permit.

Asked why he was returning, he remarked that he had heard it was safer now, but wanted to see for himself. "I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get there," the father of five added.

UNHCR maintains that 42 percent of all returnees are like Abdol Rashid: they head for central Afghanistan, primarily Kabul and Parvan provinces.

Divided into groups of 36 - or the equivalent of one busload - returnees are given free transport to the western city of Herat, through Dogharun - the main exit point along the two countries' 900km-plus frontier. Each bus is accompanied by at least one truck to carry household items. Every effort is made to ensure that waiting periods are kept within a 24-hour span so that those who register to repatriate usually depart for the border in convoys the following day.

As it is possible to travel non-stop from all 10 VRCs to the border, there's no need for additional way stations en route. Returnees are entitled to bring all their personal belongings, unlimited sums in Iranian and Afghan currency, as well as US $1,000 or its equivalent in other currencies.

Transport is organised to take all returnees registering for repatriation from the VRCs to the border. Logistically, the safe and dignified transport of returnees and their belongings is the joint responsibility of BAFIA and the government's Terminals' Organisation, while the cost of the transport is subsidised at a rate of $10 per person by UNHCR.

Convoys are scheduled so that buses and trucks arrive at the border as early as possible in the morning to allowing sufficient time for customs formalities, thereby reducing the need for overnight stays at the VRCs, as well as reducing time at the border.

According to the latest figures provided by UNHCR, while the average UNHCR-assisted returns per crossing for October was 1,397 - down from an all time high of 2,596 in August - the numbers were essentially the same as those crossing in April when the programme first began.

Today, despite a slowdown in the number of people opting to return due to the onset of lower temperatures, all 10 VRCs - the Suleymankhaneh and Varamin centres in Tehran, and those at Mashhad, Zahedan, Qom, Esfahan, Kerman, Shiraz, Yazd and Arak remain open. Since June, mobile teams from the VRCs have been serving distant areas, such as Hormuzgan, Bushehr and Khuzestan in the south, and Semnan, Qazvin and Mazanderan in the north.

"We are likely to see much lower numbers returning during the cold season," Lavanchy noted, adding, however, that strong interest in the programme remained. "Many are keen to get home before winter sets in, and the return figures from Iran are still relatively consistent from day to day," he said.

Most Afghans living in Iran, including those to be repatriated, live in urban centres, with only about 30,000 in refugee camps. Of the 2.35 million registered Afghans in Iran, just under 800,000, or one-third of the total number of Afghans who registered as part of the repatriation process, live in Tehran Province, about 300,000 of them in Varamin and neighbouring districts such as Pakdasht and Gharchak.

While Afghans are widely scattered throughout the country, other major population centres are Khorasan Province and Baluchestan-Sistan Province - both of which border Afghanistan, followed by Esfahan, Fars, Kerman and Qom.

Of the total, 30 percent are ethnic Tajik and another 30 percent are Hazara. The rest are Pashtun, Baluch, and Uzbek and others.

Commenting on the programme's future, with pressure on Afghans to return increasing, Lavanchy said the challenge ahead was finding a balance between the refugees' wish to return, the wish of the key host countries, such as Iran, to reduce the humanitarian burden on their economies, and Afghanistan's own ability to meet the needs of the returnees. "Meeting that challenge will require significant funds again next year and beyond for UNHCR's regional operation," he said.

UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programme in Iran will continue into 2003, with the overall structure of the programme remaining essentially the same as this year.