Spontaneous return of Afghans continues

Despite a recent drop, the spontaneous return of Afghan refugees from Iran is continuing, with more than 10,000 going back in the first half of January, UNHCR in Iran confirmed to IRIN on Thursday.

"The total number of spontaneous returnees for the first half of this month stands at 10,881," agency spokesman, Mohammad Nouri said from the capital Tehran. The refugee agency reported that 3,060 Afghans made the journey back to their homeland between 10 and 16 January, down more than 40 percent on the same period one week earlier.

Nouri downplayed the significance of the drop saying poor weather conditions could have affected people's decision not to return. "I don't think this represents a trend either way," he maintained.

According to UNHCR, the total number of spontaneous (unassisted) returnees from Iran for the year 2001 was 140,373. This was a major increase from the previous year, in which only 50,000 spontaneously made the move from mid-July until December 2000.

Afghans have been spontaneously returning since mid-July of that year, following the inception of a joint volunteer repatriation programme between UNHCR and Tehran in April. During the programme, some 134,000 received a UNHCR assistance package to go back, bringing to over 184,000 the total number of returnees (including the 50,000 spontaneous returnees) for the year 2000. Originally planned for six months, the repatriation programme was later extended by three months and ended on 31 December that year.

Although the Iranian Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA) office supplies spontaneous returnees with travel documents and customs facilitation, they receive no assistance from UNHCR or the Iranian government. The refugee agency, however tries to verify the voluntary nature of the returns, and returnees are given a brief training in mine awareness at the Iranian border crossing of Dogharun.

Meanwhile in Pakistan, as of 15 January, some 25,000 Afghans have spontaneous returned from the southwestern province of Baluchistan to southern Afghanistan since the beginning of this year. There are some 300,000 registered refugees in camps in Baluchistan and another million in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Asked how many spontaneous returnees were leaving NWFP, agency spokesman, Yusuf Hassan in the Pakistani capital Islamabad told IRIN it was much more difficult to get accurate figures from NWFP due to security problems in the area, but maintained: "Up to 4,000 were returning a day at Pakistan's Torkham border crossing."

Commenting on their return, he explained most people wanted to see first hand what was happening back in their country. "There are expectations that things could be getting better," Hassan said.

For the past twenty years, Iran and Pakistan have played host to millions of Afghans fleeing the scourges of war, drought and hunger. The UN estimates there are 2.3 million Afghan refugees in Iran today and another two million in Pakistan. Both countries have repeatedly called upon the international community to shoulder some of the burden.