Afghan refugees feel under pressure to leave

Under Tuesday’s government-imposed deadline for undocumented Afghans living in Iran to report to the Office of the Bureau for Foreign Immigrants and Alien Affairs (BAFIA) for exit documents, an increasing number of refugees report feeling pressured to go home. "I heard that all Afghans should leave Iran. That’s why I’m leaving," Aref Teymuri told IRIN at the Soleyman Khani voluntary repatriation centre (VRC) in the Iranian capital, Tehran. "I would rather stay. At least here I can work," the 20-year-old day labourer said, minutes before boarding a bus for Afghanistan. Such comments are revealing. As a documented refugee in last year’s BAFIA survey, he seemed unaware that the deadline applied only to undocumented refugees. And while it is difficult to say precisely how this deadline has affected people’s decision to return – many of whom were planning to do so – some are undoubtedly opting for an earlier departure. Since the start of the joint voluntary repatriation programme between the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Iranian government in April, over 170,000 Afghans have been helped to go. The returnees are provided with transport up to the border as well as a small cash grant and an assistance package to facilitate their return. Additionally, another 45,000 have returned spontaneously or unassisted. According to UNHCR in Tehran, the figures for both assisted and unassisted returns have increased since the beginning of summer – with between 3,000 to 4,000 crossing the border each day. Recently, however, Tehran announced that all undocumented Afghans who had not participated in last year’s registration process should report to BAFIA no later than 27 August to receive their exit documents and leave. While 2.3 million Afghans participated in the registration process, it is estimated up to 300,000 did not. The issue is a sensitive one for Iran – hosting the largest Afghan refugee population in the world today. "It’s not a matter of Afghans staying in Iran. All Afghan immigrants should leave Iranian territory and return to their country. However, at the first stage, those Afghan immigrants not having any residence documentation and living illegally in Iran will be the target," Ahmad Hosseini, the director-general of BAFIA, said in an interview with Iran's Jomhur-e Eslami newspaper in July. "At the next stage, some restrictions will be considered for those refugees having documents from us, but not wanting to take part in the repatriation programme." Hosseini reportedly said Afghans in Iran would no longer be considered refugees. This would mean the 1951 refugee convention would no longer apply to them and they would be deprived of all refugee subsidies until they left the country. Such rhetoric worries Mohammad Yaqoub Shah Qazizadeh, the first secretary of the Afghan embassy in Tehran and the official responsible for refugee affairs. "There is certainly implied pressure for Afghans to leave," he told IRIN. "In accordance with the repatriation agreement we signed with UNHCR and Iran [in Geneva in April], there was never any distinction made between refugees with documents and those without. We [therefore] object to any deadline being made for undocumented refugees." While praising the Iranian government for its years of generous hospitality, Qazizadeh urged it to be patient on the issue of repatriation. Reaffirming his government’s commitment to the agreement, he called on Tehran to do the same. "Don’t push and press the Afghan refugees living here to go back. Let them return on a voluntary basis in accordance with our agreement," he said. Rushing the process would only exacerbate the humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan, the Afghan diplomat said. "Many returning refugees in Afghanistan can’t find shelter. There still remains a complete lack of food, shelter and infrastructure to support such a large-scale return," he stressed. According to the tripartite agreement signed in Geneva, up to 400,000 Afghans a year would voluntarily leave Iran for Afghanistan. Inasmuch as to date over 200,000 had already returned, Qazizadeh was confident that full number would be achieved. Asked what type of pressures Afghans now faced, he noted that hundreds of refugees – many of whom were documented - had recently been arrested in Tehran. "We heard that the police tore up the documents and sent them to camps before sending them onward to Afghanistan," he asserted. He added however, that these were the only incidents he was aware of in Tehran, warning that the situation in other parts of the country could be worse. But it will be the Iranian government’s stance after Tuesday which will be the true test of such concerns. While pressure is currently being brought to bear on undocumented refugees, the distinction between undocumented and documented Afghans is not always clear and could become even more blurred in the future.