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Concern over refugees' return from Europe

[Pakistan] Afghans report increase in police harrassment.  "Many Afghans reported increased harrassment as they left the country"
David Swanson/IRIN
Trucks waiting at Takhtabaig to repatriate Afghans
NGOs on Thursday warned against the premature voluntary repatriation of refugees and asylum seekers from European countries back to Afghanistan. "The conditions are still not conducive enough to promote such repatriation," Noorullah, a senior programme officer for the UK-based NGO, Islamic Relief, told IRIN. "I don't think the situation is so good yet," he said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. His comments follow Tuesday's announcement by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, advising European governments to provide a financial package to Afghan asylum seekers who wish to return to their country. Echoing this concern, Eve Lester, refugee coordinator at Amnesty International in London, told IRIN that the time was inappropriate for UNHCR to be promoting the return of these people. "Is it responsible to be promoting return when there are indications that they [UNHCR] cannot even handle the existing rate of returns?" she asked. Just last month the refugee agency had said that without fresh contributions, it would run out of funding by the end of June. At the time UNHCR said it required US $271 million through year-end, but had received only US $180 million, she explained. Moreover, in February UNHCR had requested states outside the Afghan region to be cautious about launching voluntary repatriation initiatives, and to refrain from making a final decision when processing asylum claims by Afghans. However, on Tuesday the agency said in a statement from its head office in Geneva that it was recommending to the governments that the time was ripe for Afghans - wherever they were and at whatever stage they might be in the asylum process - to be offered the option of voluntary repatriation. "We are not saying that Afghanistan's problems are over," UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville told IRIN from Geneva. "What we are saying is that those who wish to go back should be helped in that." At least 150,000 Afghans have sought asylum in European countries in the last three years. According to UNHCR statistics, the number of returns is still averaging about 8,000 people per day from the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Iran; and more than one-and-a-quarter million Afghans have gone home from neighbouring countries since the assisted voluntary return programme began on 1 March. Colville said the agency was urging the governments to offer a generous package, including travel costs to those who wished to go back. He said most returnees would go to urban centres in Afghanistan. However, Noorullah cited the lack of security outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, the presence of large numbers of internally displaced people who needed to be returned to their homes, the lack of health facilities, water shortages, presence of mines and a whole lot of other factors as reasons for delaying repatriation. "Even in Kabul, property values are so high that returning Afghans are finding it hard to obtain lodgings," he exclaimed. UNHCR says that it has reviewed its position following improvements in the situation in Afghanistan over a period of five months. "Many of the reasons which prompted people to flee only a year ago, under the previous Taliban regime, no longer exist," it said. "Today, a legitimate government is in place, and there is no longer a civil war raging in the central and northern parts of the country," UNHCR maintained. But Lester said Amnesty's position was that the situation was still not safe enough to promote voluntary repatriation. "What's the hurry?" she asked.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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