Fewer refugees returning

The number of Afghan refugees returning home is slowing down as cooler night temperatures discourage families from leaving camps in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told IRIN on Thursday. "We are at levels very similar to the start of operations in March," spokesman Jack Redden told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. According to the latest UNHCR figures, 1.66 million Afghan refugees have returned from Iran, Pakistan and the Central Asian states since the end of last winter. These have been helped by UNHCR and an additional 400,000 have gone back on their own. Redden said the slow down of the return was due to approaching winter, a time when some refugees would also drift back to Pakistan. "People in rural areas will be going to Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandahar where life will be more sustainable." Afghan government and UNHCR officials estimate that up to 550,000 people may be particularly exposed to hardships during the cold season in Afghanistan, a UNHCR statement issued on 10 September said. Redden said the peak of returning Afghan refugees from Pakistan was 412,000 in May which dropped to 196,000 in August. "Last week the number was just 22,000," he added. However, the statement said the number of Afghan refugees returning from Iran had increased in recent months, mainly due to Iranian government efforts to encourage the repatriation. "The number of refugees leaving Iran last month more than doubled to 62,000 people, bringing to 185,000 the number of UNHCR-assisted returnees since April," it said. Another 58,000 Afghans have returned from Iran spontaneously. Redden added that UNHCR had reduced the number of voluntary repatriation centres (VRC) in Pakistan because of dwindling numbers of returning Afghans. "As of now the only VRCs operating are two in Karachi and one in Peshawar," he noted. The two in Karachi, capital of southern Sindh province, were likely to be closed down shortly but the one in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), will continue to function, he added. The original exodus of Afghan refugees began in 1979 during the Soviet invasion, peaking at 6.2 million people outside the country in 1990.