Diminished opportunities for returnees

The results of UNHCR’s returnee monitoring programme indicate that Afghans returning to those areas of their country least affected by drought or conflict are still having difficulties re-establishing themselves. In the light of this year’s crisis, the ability of most regions of Afghanistan to absorb returnees had “greatly diminished” and many returnees would find it difficult to carry on, UNHCR Protection Officer Katherina Lumpp told IRIN. “I’m sure that some returnees have given up to a varying degree,” she said. Over 270,000 people have returned from Iran and Pakistan through voluntary repatriation projects or spontaneously, without formal assistance. The vast majority have returned in the last two years, with 18 percent returning prior to 1999. Most returnees from Pakistan returned to the eastern provinces between Kabul and Kandahar, whereas those from Iran returned mainly to Herat province, with less than half moving on to Kabul or Mazar, according to UNHCR. The agency had not facilitated the return of refugees to areas severely affected by drought or conflict, Lumpp said. According to the refugee agency’s monitoring statistics, 80 percent of returnees were women and children, which suggested that men were staying away in search of work. The possibility of working locally in Afghanistan was extremely limited, especially for those dependent on labour markets [rather than work on their own farms, for instance]. A third of the returnees interviewed told UNHCR they were unable to find work in their home areas. Previous unemployment in countries of asylum was recorded under four percent. With only 42 percent of returnees able to recover their land and homes, many families were dependent on the job market - precisely at a time when the demand for labour had collapsed throughout the country. Lumpp said that returnees in the eastern region reported that they could not establish share-cropping arrangements with landowners, who barely had sufficient for their immediate families. In the wake of the drought and in the absence of seeds, this was a familiar pattern in returnee areas, she said. Poor conditions in Iran and Pakistan had often prompted refugees to return, according to Lumpp. “In addition to a worsening economic situation, many refugees were concerned about their legal status in their host countries,” she said. But these refugees had opted to return to relatively stable areas and there were large parts of Afghanistan still affected by drought and war. Anders Fange of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan told IRIN that the refugees could not be treated as a homogenous group. “They come from different ethnic groups, they come from different areas, they have different professions and conditions at home can vary greatly. Any decision to return will be evaluated on the basis of what information they have on their home areas,” he said. Those refugees in urban areas, many of whom had set up businesses and were integrated into Iranian or Pakistani life, were perhaps the least reluctant to return, according to humanitarian workers. Mohamed Aman, an Afghan of Hazara origin who settled in Islamabad in 1998, told IRIN that he would not return until a “democratic system was in place” in Afghanistan. “If there was a good government and the chance of good work, then I would go back after five or 10 years. But I would have to be completely sure about my children’s education and a job,” he said. According to Lumpp, the lack of medium-term investment in job-creation and agricultural rehabilitation in Afghanistan has made it difficult for returning refugees. “We know that the effects of the drought could have been mitigated with more investment, and this would have translated into a more sustainable return to Afghanistan,” she said.