Too early for refugees in Europe to be sent back - UNHCR

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday that it is too early for western countries to be sending Afghan refugees home. This follows comments made by UK Immigration Minister Jeffrey Rooker, who was quoted by a British newspaper as saying Afghanistan was becoming safe and could take back its refugees, an AFP report said on Monday.

"If we look at countries such as Pakistan and Iran, they are worse off economically than western nations, and they are home to the largest Afghan refugee communities in the world. We feel western countries have a moral obligation to be patient and allow refugees to wait until we are absolutely sure that conditions are right for them to return," a UNHCR spokeswoman, Melita Sunjic, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"We are against forcing asylum seekers to return," she added, saying that the agency was not even asking Afghans in Pakistan and Iran to return yet. "We want them to wait until the spring and until security conditions and the weather have improved."

Sunjic noted that it was important to take other factors such as education for Afghan children living abroad into account, as they may be in the middle of their schooling. "The asylum countries have been hosting refugees for some time now, and they can wait a little longer before sending them back," she said.

Although there is concern over asylum seekers wanting to stay in western countries long-term, Sunjic said from her previous experience in Austria, following the fall of the Taliban, it was clear that Afghans were keen to return if conditions were right.

UNHCR is planning to launch its repatriation programme for Afghans in Pakistan and Iran during the months of March and April. "It will be a huge logistical exercise as there are large numbers of Afghan refugees in both countries," she said.

Officials of the refugee agency are preparing a final draft of the programme, which will cover transport to Afghanistan, materials for reconstructing homes, food and kitchen kits. Those involved in agriculture would also be given seeds to enable them to resume farming, she explained.

Rooker's comments coincide with reports that the Australian Government is being urged by its own officials to close an immigration camp housing some 900 asylum seekers - mostly Afghans - because of poor conditions. The camp has been described as an "extremely harsh environment". The BBC has reported that 11 Afghan boys are on hunger strike at the camp, threatening suicide unless released.