Repatriation from Iran begins

A major effort to assist hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Iran to go home was launched on Tuesday. Under the joint voluntary repatriation programme between the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Iranian government, up to 400,000 could return this year alone. About 146 people had voluntarily returned on the first day - comprising 29 families and seven individuals, a UNHCR spokesman, Mohammad Nourish, told IRIN from the Iranian capital, Tehran. "Everyone we spoke to was hopeful to resume their lives inside Afghanistan," he said. His remarks followed reports that thousands of Afghans throughout Iran were registering to return - despite insecurity and dismal economic opportunities back home. Indeed, a BBC report on Wednesday said the mass response had taken officials by surprise, and many Afghans now faced a long wait in the registration queue before beginning their long journey home. Under the terms of the programme, Afghan refugees in Iran may register at one of nine voluntary repatriation centres established throughout the country before being transported to the border aboard government-hired buses. On arrival, returnees are briefed on the danger of landmines, and security conditions inside Afghanistan. Once at the frontier, they board buses organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which carry them to the provincial capital of their choice. According to IOM, returns are scheduled to take place six days per week at a rate of 1,600 people a day. Nail Mohammad, the IOM operations manager at the main Afghan border crossing of Slam Ale's described the exodus as "a race against the clock". "We're very busy at the zero border point, erecting tents and getting everything ready for the returnees," he said, adding that doctors, nurses, a midwife and two ambulances were now on stand-by for people in need of special assistance. Of the total planning figure for 2002, IOM expects that about 300,000 returnees will pass through Slam Ale's. Of these, 52 percent would be returning to the western city of Herat, 18 percent to the capital, Kabul, and the remainder to the central provinces of Ghazi, Lodger and Verdi, and the northern province of Condos, it said. Repatriation through Milk, the other traditional crossing point along the 900-km border has been temporarily postponed due to security concerns inside Afghanistan. "Those people wishing to participate in the programme are being encouraged to make their way via Foghorn," Nourish said. In terms of actual assistance, families returning from Iran receive the same UNHCR assistance package of food and non-food items as those returning from neighbouring Pakistan under a similar programme, which began on 1 March. They also receive US $10 per person for transport to their home areas - half the amount provided to returnees from Pakistan, as transport up to the provincial capitals is provided by IOM. Commenting on the programme, Quiz Ehsanolhaq Ehsan, deputy for repatriation affairs at the Afghan Embassy in Iran, told IRIN he was hopeful for its success. "I can assure you that the Interim Authority and the Afghan people are positive about this development. As this programme is a voluntary one, I don't foresee any problems," he said. Indeed, this is the very aspect UNHCR wants to emphasise most. "This repatriation is voluntary. No one is going to force anyone out who doesn't want to go back. UNHCR's role is only to facilitate those who wish to return," Nouri explained, adding that the refugee agency was interviewing all participants to verify the voluntary nature of their return. His comments come just days after Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told IRIN that about 6,800 Afghans had been forcibly repatriated through the Milak border crossing in the last three weeks. These refugees had included several families who had lived in Iran for years - legal document holders and unaccompanied minors. Among the single men, several had spontaneously reported physical mistreatment in the detention centres they had passed through, MSF said. Meanwhile, in parallel with the repatriation programme, UNHCR confirmed that 154 Afghans had spontaneously (unassisted) gone home on Tuesday. "This is an ongoing movement, and already some 48,000 have spontaneously returned this year alone," Nouri said. He added that under the tripartite agreement on repatriation between Kabul, Tehran and UNHCR signed last week in the Swiss city of Geneva, these numbers would not be included in the planning figures for repatriation. While figures vary, the Tehran government estimates that 2.3 million Afghan refugees are living in Iran today, thereby easily identifying it was one of the countries hosting the largest number of Afghan refugees in the world today. Pakistan, the other main host country, is currently home to two million Afghans.