UNHCR slams Dubai deportations

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday voiced its concern over last week's deportation of some 750 Afghans from Dubai back to Afghanistan. The incident nearly doubles the number of Afghans who have been forcibly returned back to their country this year alone. "Governments always have the right to deport illegal aliens, but individuals should have access to UNHCR staff if they feel they have an asylum claim," agency spokesman, Peter Kessler told IRIN from Geneva. "This was clearly not the case in Dubai," he maintained, adding without access to forcible returnees, it was difficult to determine if there were any human rights or refugee protection concerns amongst the group. Kessler's comments follow Saturday's deportation of the group, reportedly all men, on board two Boeing 747 aircraft back to the Afghan capital Kabul. According to UNHCR the men were among some 2,500 Afghans who had been imprisoned for more than a year for being in the Emirate illegally. "We believe the situation in Afghanistan is too precarious for any such action or any large scale returns to take place," Kessler said. "People now should only be returning voluntarily," he explained. Asked how serious the problem was, Kessler said that increasingly the agency was being approached by deportees returning to an uncertain future in Afghanistan. Reception facilities for deportees are virtually non-existent and many such cases arrive in places like Kabul or border zones with no way to reach their place of origin, making them immediately displaced within their own country. Reeling from two decades of war, insecurity and the worst drought in living memory, Afghanistan is hardly conducive to a large scale repatriation. While currently UNHCR opposes forcible returns to Afghanistan, it is planning to assist 400,000 people from both Iran and Pakistan who wish to go back voluntarily. "We will facilitate more if the desire is there, but this should only be done voluntarily," Kessler said." We do not wish to see neighbouring countries or states forcing Afghans back," he emphasised. Already this year alone, 150,000 Afghans have returned voluntarily. On Friday UNHCR will open its first of seven repatriation registration centres in Pakistan in Tartabek, near the western city of Peshawar. Across the border in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, UNHCR will open a cash distribution point for those heading back. Returnees are eligible for a small payment when they go back to Afghanistan. At Tartabek and other centres soon to open, they can complete registration formalities if they would like to receive UNHCR's assistance package once they cross into Afghanistan. According to Kessler, the first of 10 such centres was slated to open in Iran on 1 April. Both countries host over two million Afghan refugees a piece, fleeing the twin scourges of drought and conflict.