UNHCR closes controversial refugee camp

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) closed down the infamous Jalozai refugee camp in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province on Tuesday, moving thousands of its last dwellers to better-equipped camps in the area.

Once a showpiece depicting appalling living conditions for Afghan refugees - dotted with rows of plastic-sheet tents as the only protection against sub-zero cold in winter and sizzling heat in summer - Jalozai on Tuesday stood as a deserted expanse of dry mud some 40 km east of Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province.

"I am very happy to be leaving, we have lived in these terrible conditions for too long," Bibi Lakhda, an Afghan refugee woman, told IRIN just before boarding a truck for another camp closer to the border with Afghanistan. "It was a difficult life, living in a tent, there was very little water and it was very cold."

Residents of the Jalozai camp, which was set up in November 2000, became controversial between the UNHCR and the Pakistani government due to differing perceptions about refugees. UNHCR, mandated to help refugees anywhere, was at odds with the Pakistani government, which did not want to recognise the Afghans as genuine refugees.

It took more than a year of negotiations between Pakistani authorities and the United Nations refugee agency to agree to shift them to better-equipped camps elsewhere in the province.

Finally, on Friday, the last of the refugees were moved and sent to various new camps close to the border with Afghanistan.

"At first, we were moving a small number of people, because we were not sure if people would go initially," Mohammad Adar, senior emergency officer for the UNHCR, told IRIN.

He said, however, that once information about the other camps started reaching residents of Jalozai, they started coming forward to be moved.

"I don't know what conditions will be like at the new camp, but it can only be better," said Lakhda, who remained in Jalozai for nine months after fleeing from Baghlan Province in Afghanistan.

Her wish to move illustrated the widespread aversion to the camp, which had become notorious for its miserable living conditions, open sewerage, disease and lack of water, all shocking to first-time visitors.

Millions of Afghans have fled their homes due to war and because of the worst drought in memory, now entering its fourth year. More than two million of them have been living in Pakistan for years, and Islamabad says it is unwilling to accept any more because of financial constraints and security concerns.

Up to 80,000 resided in Jalozai, which started off as merely a site for registration for new refugees in transit to proper camps.

Durkhanom, an Afghan refugee woman in her late thirties, also said she was happy to leave Jalozai, where she had stayed for nine months after her husband had been killed by the ousted Taliban in Konduz.

"We have been living in terrible conditions," she said. "We have no choice but to go to this new camp, because I cannot got back to Afghanistan."

However, according to the UNHCR, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to be repatriated to Afghanistan after winter ends, provided there is security and stability in the country, devastated by more than 20 years of war.

In the meantime, until the Afghans are able to go home, the UNHCR wants to provide as much help to as many of them as possible. In the new camps, including Shalman, Kotkai and Ashgaro, UNHCR is promises to provide proper tents, water, and regular food.

Adar said UNHCR would continue relocating Afghans, including those in cities who were not being assisted, to new camp sites, opened with the permission of Pakistani authorities.

"We still have the capacity to accommodate 40,000 people in nine new camps set up after 11 September," Adar said. "This is the first step towards repatriation," he added.