Signs of refugees returning

Despite the turmoil of recent weeks, the office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday reported that, since early November, more than 12,000 Afghan refugees have gone home. Mostly of Hazara, Uzbek or Tajik ethnic origin, they had earlier fled Taliban persecution and forced conscription. According to aid officials, they are now returning to areas of Afghanistan from which the Taliban have been routed. "It is a bit premature to talk of repatriation," Yusuf Hassan, the UNHCR spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN. "People will go back if there is security and stability in Afghanistan," he added. It was believed that most refugees would prefer to go back in spring to avoid the severe Afghan winter, but, Hassan said, some were returning from Iran, because the cause of their migration the first place appeared to have been removed. According to UNHCR, 15,000 refugees voluntarily returned home from Iran in October. The UNHCR spokesman in Geneva, Ron Redmond, told a news briefing on Monday that with the return of peace and stability to Afghanistan, large numbers of refugees would go back. However, favourable conditions needed to be created before their departure. The refugee agency remains optimistic that if security conditions permits, millions of Afghans could return home as early as next spring. As such, UNHCR efforts inside the country are likely to be stepped up. The refugee agency started contributing to aid distributions in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday, while UNHCR relief aid has reached Termez in Uzbekistan, for onward distribution into Afghanistan. UNHCR is also in the process of reopening its offices, which suffered heavy looting, throughout the country. However, the international relief agency, World Concern, warned in a press statement on Wednesday that the return of some Afghan refugees did not mean that the crisis was over. Many refugees in Pakistan did not want to go home yet. Meanwhile, the transfer of Afghans to new sites prepared by UNHCR and partner agencies in Pakistan is continuing, with 640 people being shifted from the Killi Faizo staging post in southern Pakistan, to Roghani, a village 16 km away. Similarly, some 550 people have been moved from the Jalozai camp near Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, to Kotakai in the Tribal Areas near the Afghan border. Although Pakistan's border remains officially closed to asylum seekers, some 150,000 "invisible" refugees are believed to have entered, most of whom are staying with relatives or friends.