Focus on renewed repatriation of Afghan refugees

Aalim Gul, an old Afghan refugee, peered short-sightedly through his thick spectacles at the rows of trucks and smaller passenger vehicles that stood parked just to a side of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) repatriation centre on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) that borders Afghanistan. "I'm very happy to return to my country," Gul told IRIN in Pushto. A young refugee who spoke Urdu had volunteered to translate and he articulated the old man's reply hesitatingly, ensuring that he used the right words. Gul had been in Pakistan for 25 years, the translator explained. His voice over-rode the old man's consistent monologue. "I came here with my family after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Since then, I have always wanted to return to my country, where I can be with my people. It wasn't possible earlier, but now things are better at home. And we have help, also," the translator's voice trailed off as the old man, really animated now, turned and gestured to a row of white, single-storey structures a little distance away where a board bore the legend "UNHCR Iris Verification Centre". The old man was still chattering away. "He says the UNHCR people are going to get him home," the translator said, hurriedly. "He says he will have to go in now to get his eyes tested. He thinks he's also getting a new pair of glasses." REPATRIATING THE AFGHANS A UNHCR repatriation process for Afghan refugees which assists people wishing to return home, to a country ravaged by over two decades of war and internal strife, has just resumed from 2 March, giving people such as Gul - as well as the dozens of other families that had assembled close to the simple shack-and-barbed-wire-enclosure - the incentive to try and finally make the attempt to go home. Having run almost non-stop since early 2002, once it was ascertained that conditions in Afghanistan were on the mend following the ousting of the Taliban in late 2001, the repatriation programme was suspended in November 2003 following the brutal murder of Bettina Goislard, a UNHCR staffer, in the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni by unknown gunmen. The shooting followed months of increasing violence against aid workers in Afghanistan. The decision to resume repatriations came, according to the agency, after the UNHCR took additional security precautions for its staff and was given assurances by the governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan that they were combating militants who had targeted aid workers.

Refugees ready their vehicles and themselves for the trip back to Afghanistan

"We have indications that measures have been taken to improve the security and that will help refugees to go back to different areas. The assessment, of course, continues to be done in different areas of Afghanistan," Richard Ndaula, a UNHCR Associate Repatriation Officer, told IRIN in Peshawar. Last week, a UNHCR spokesman told reporters in Geneva that the decision to resume repatriations had come only after the assurances from both governments and the introduction of extra security precautions by the agency itself. Refugees from Pakistan are given a travel grant, food and other items of assistance on arrival at UNHCR encashment centres in Afghanistan. Roughly 1.9 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan under the programme since it began in early 2002. A UNHCR spokesman told IRIN last week that another 400,000 were expected to return home in 2004. The voluntary repatriation process is governed by a tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The programme is scheduled to run until 2005 and enshrines the principles of voluntary, gradual returns to ensure that the numbers of those who go home can be absorbed in Afghanistan and do not flow back into Pakistan. For refugees opting not to return home to a country destroyed by war and infighting between powerful warlords, the UNHCR offers a choice of relocation to another camp - should one be in imminent likelihood of being closed down. CLOSURE, BUT STILL CLOSER A January survey in Shalman camp, located in the Khyber Agency along Pakistan's rugged mountainous border with Afghanistan, showed that about 53 percent of the inmates wanted to be shifted to another camp in the Bajaur Agency, rather than relocate to Afghanistan, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN last week. "From Shalman, 47 percent said they wanted to go back to Afghanistan. Fifty-three percent said they wanted to be shifted to Bajaur. It's a pretty even split in that camp," Jack Redden, the UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Originally built to handle approximately 26,000 refugees but now left with a population of only about 10,000 inmates following the successful repatriation of most of the others, Shalman is to be closed down because, primarily, of an isolated, waterless location that renders the provision of humanitarian assistance both difficult and expensive. A UNHCR press statement said the camp "was located in a particularly hostile location" and "all water is brought daily by tanker trucks". The alternative, for those refugees opting to stay back in Pakistan, is a camp called Kotkai in the Bajaur Agency, also in the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan. The UNHCR media release said it was in "an area with ample local water" and "could easily accommodate the 819 families from Shalman who asked to relocate," adding that the agency would move about 50 families per day so that the relocation process could be completed in about 16 days. However, things went awry on Monday, the first day of relocation, when a UNHCR convoy carrying the refugees was forced to turn back towards Shalman when a main road was blocked by a violent demonstration between two warring tribal groups. According to another UNHCR media release, the dispute turned violent and the windscreen of one agency vehicle was shattered as stones were thrown at the convoy. The convoy, carrying about 339 Afghans, was ordered to return to Shalman camp as the dispute continued, the press release added. FOR THE EYES ONLY In Peshawar, however, things proceeded smoothly, even after old man Gul was gently informed that the "test" he was to undergo in the IVC was not going to result in a new pair of glasses.

Inside the Iris validation centre (IVC), a young man prepares to take the test

At the IVC in Peshawar - as, indeed, at the other such centre in Quetta, the capital of the south-western province of Baluchistan - all returning refugees are given a computerised iris test that verifies no one has previously been tested and received assistance to return to Afghanistan. Special software ensures that the images received are sent to a central database within seconds, negating any attempts by what UNHCR staff call "recyclers" to sneak a second helping of the UNHCR assistance package. Each returnee receives a travel allowance, according to the distance, and a small cash stipend, usually US $8, instead of the food and other material assistance given in previous years. Refugees returning to Afghanistan use the UNHCR grant to arrange their own transport. Rows of trucks, parked haphazardly outside the IVC in Peshawar and threatening to tilt over with the weights of their burdens, dwarfed smaller passenger vans. Silent faces stared out of passenger van windows, seemingly unmindful of the stuffiness inside as the spring sun blazed down. Small children played in the dust as their burqa-clad mothers sat in the shade provided by the bulk of the bigger trucks. The only modicum of conversation came from the drivers of the vehicles who stood around, waiting for the go-ahead to begin the journey. "I'm going back after 10 years," Haji Hayataullah, a swarthy, bearded man told IRIN through the helpful interpreter. "My wife and children are along but I don't know what I'm going to do - I have nothing to go back to. But it's my country and I still want to return home." A young man who had sidled up, as had other teenagers at the sight of the visitor's camera, interjected in Pushto, the interpreter hastening to translate. "I'm going back with my two brothers and their wives," Filham Ali told IRIN. His family had fled Afghanistan because they feared the Taliban, Ali said. "Now that they are gone and things seem to be getting better, we all want to go back," he added, stroking his almost negligible beard. Just a little distance away, a young man in his twenties lounged against the front window of a passenger van. From the back, an old woman looked out into the sunlight from her cramped vantage point inside the vehicle. Her relatives sat, bent double against each other as the eight-seater appeared to be holding twice that number.

Rows of trucks and smaller vans lined up outside the repatriation centre

"We've been living here for seven years," the young man, who introduced himself by a single name, Daud, told IRIN in English. The old woman in the van was his grandmother, he added, and the rest were his entire blood-family. "We moved here because things were really difficult in Afghanistan a few years ago," he said, matter-of-factly. Daud worked as a tailor in Peshawar for the duration of the time he was in Pakistan. Still only in his early twenties, his main interest in going back to Kabul was "so I can go back to my studies, now that things have improved." He stood and watched as a family made its way through the gates of the IVC a few hundred yards away. "We'll be next soon," he muttered, sotto voce. Inside the IVC, Saadia Dawar of the UNHCR told IRIN that she expected the volume of people to rise quite dramatically by the time summer came. "Right now, we're averaging about 65 families per day, despite the slow start," she said, leading the way into the computer room where women operators ran the iris verification machines. "But it's increasing rapidly. As the news travels around in the refugee community that the repatriation process has begun again, we'll get more and more people," she added.