Afghan repatriation resumes as border reopens

Efforts to repatriate thousands of Afghan refugees resumed along the Torkham border in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Monday. The crossing into the eastern Afghan province of Nangahar was closed on Friday following a dispute over Afghans entering Pakistan without documents, leaving some 500 returnee families stranded, a UNHCR official told IRIN. "We held negotiations with both Pakistani and Afghan authorities and resolved the matter. The border reopened at 2.30 pm on Sunday," public information officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mohammad Ayub Khawreen, told IRIN in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the NWFP. With soaring temperatures, there was concern over the well-being of those stranded, he said, adding UNHCR had established tents and toilets, and made drinking water available to assist those affected. The refugees finally made it across the border on Sunday, after spending two days at the border area. However, registrations continued at the Takhtabaig voluntary registration centre (VRC), 16 km west of Peshawar, where thousands of Afghans have been registering for the joint UNHCR assistance programme since it began on 1 March. On Monday 113 vehicles, each carrying up to three families, stood ready to leave the NWFP. "We have heard that it is safe to go back now so we are leaving Pakistan," Zar Bibi, originally from the Afghan capital, Kabul, told IRIN as she sat in a truck waiting. With some 400 staff working on the repatriation programme in the NWFP, the process has not been without problems, however. "We have found that people are returning to Pakistan having already left the country once," associate repatriation officer for UNHCR in Takhtabaig, Leila Nugmanova told IRIN. "Many even go as far as changing their appearance. The men often shave their beards or grow one," she explained. Once in Afghanistan, returnees collect a cash grant from the UNHCR field unit in Mohmandara, some 42 km from Jalalabad. Those traveling to Nangahar are given US $10 per person, while refugees returning to Kabul are given US $20 per person and those traveling further north are entitled to US $38. In addition to their cash entitlement and an assistance package of food and nonfood related items, the returnees are also given vaccinations, a medical check-up and mine awareness. "These are important necessities to ensure the refugees have a good start to life back in their homeland," public information assistant, UNHCR Jalalabad, Khan Mohammad Stanakzai, told IRIN. Since the repatriation effort in Pakistan began almost five months ago, over a million Afghan refugees have made the journey back to their country. In a parallel programme beginning on 9 April in Iran, over 100,000 Afghans have returned.