Iran to close Mahkaki and Mile-46 camps

Iranian officials confirmed to IRIN on Monday plans to close two camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Afghanistan. Established after 11 September, and home to more than 10,000 Afghan IDPs, the Mahkaki and Mile-46 camps in southwestern Nimruz Province, are administered by the Iranian Red Crescent Society. "As per our plans for repatriation in April, we will begin the process of closing these two camps during the repatriation process," the international affairs officer for the Iranian Bureau for Foreigners and Illegal Aliens (BAFIA), Rostam-Ali Rostami, said from the Iranian capital, Tehran. In coordination with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), BAFIA hopes to repatriate some 400,000 Afghan refugees this year alone. Asked how the operation would proceed, Rostami said the closure would not be done immediately, but under an incremental process, in coordination with nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) working in the area. With reconstruction already beginning inside the country, and most of the people at the camps being farmers, they should return to their homes and fields, he said. The move was pragmatic, Bruno Jochum, the head of mission of the international NGO Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), told IRIN from Tehran. "Given the harsh climatic conditions - particularly sandstorms - closing these two camps is a wise decision." He added that the question now was the methodology to be applied. "We are advocating that UNHCR play a more active role in assisting the return of these people to their places of origin," he said. Jochum went on to call on UNHCR to offer the same assistance package to the IDPs at Mahkaki and Mile-46 as it would be offering the refugees to be repatriated from Iran. In this respect, according to a recent MSF survey of Mahkaki residents, 15 to 20 percent were found to be vulnerable and therefore in need of protection and special assistance - something UNHCR could greatly assist with, he added. Meanwhile, UNHCR in Tehran told IRIN that almost 35,000 Afghan refugees had spontaneously (unassisted) gone home since the beginning of this year, most of them through the main border-crossing point at Dogharun. Tajiks represented the largest ethnic group among returning Afghans, followed by Hazaras, Pashtuns and Uzbeks. Almost 63 percent of this year's spontaneously repatriated Afghans have returned from Tehran the capital, followed by the northeastern city of Mashhad, Esfahan in central Iran, Shiraz in the southwest and Kerman in the southeast. Most of the returnees were heading for the western city of Herat, followed by Kabul, Ghazni, Balkh and Faryab provinces. According to a UNHCR survey in Mashhad, the vast majority of Afghans in Iran cite security, stability and employment opportunities - with a clear emphasis on "more security" - as the motivating factors affecting their decision in regard to permanent repatriation. Drought, human rights abuses, food shortages, health and education concerns were also voiced. Other Afghans, however, specify reconciliation and national unity as the key elements for the future of Afghanistan, establishment of which, in their opinion, could also bring security to their war-torn country. The United Nations maintains there are over two million Afghan refugees in Iran today. Fearing a major new influx after 11 September, Tehran sealed its border with Afghanistan, and proposed establishing a series of IDP camps inside Afghan territory where assistance would be provided instead. Mahkaki and Mile-46, just inside the border, were the only such camps to open.