Security remains key to resumption of repatriation at Milak

Security remains the main stumbling block to the resumption of Afghan repatriation through the Iranian border crossing at Milak. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) suspended its operations there one month ago following a shooting incident involving an Iranian border guard. "UNHCR will resume its operations when security there is ensured and guaranteed adequate logistical arrangements are put in place," agency spokesman, Mohammad Nouri, told IRIN from the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Friday. The refugee agency suspended its operations on 1 September after an Iranian border guard fired a warning shot in the air in an attempt to prevent a group of people entering Iran, and subsequently giving chase, in an area known as Zero Point along the border in the country's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province. At the time of the incident, agency staff were in the immediate vicinity supervising the return of a convoy of Afghan returnees from Milak to the western Afghan city of Zaranj. Staff members dived for cover when the group the border guard was chasing ran straight into the UNHCR operation. Since the start of the UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation programme in Iran on 9 April, 272,639 Afghans have returned to their homeland. Of this number, 208,197 or over 31,000 families, were repatriated within the framework of the voluntary repatriation effort, while over 64,400 Afghan individuals returned spontaneously or without agency assistance. The Dogharoun border exit station (BES),located in Iran's northeastern Khorasan province, remains the main exit point for Afghans returning home, with 197,574 returnees, while the BES at Milak accounted for only 10,623 returnees or 1,892 families. Earlier this month, Tehran asked UNHCR to speed up the repatriation process. In a report by the official Iranian news agency (IRNA), Ahmad Hosseini, director-general of the country's Bureau of Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs Office (BAFIA), called for an increase of 200,000, from 400,000 to 600,000, the number of Afghans to be repatriated this year. Under a tripartite agreement signed between Tehran, Kabul and UNHCR in April, a target figure of 400,000 Afghans would be voluntarily repatriated back to their homeland. According to figures provided by BAFIA last year, there are some 2.3 million Afghans officially living in the country, making it - alongside Pakistan - one of the largest host countries to Afghan refugees in the world. As for those Afghans currently remaining in the country, Hosseini asserted that according to the Geneva Convention, given the current conditions inside Afghanistan, the Afghans could not be considered as refugees. Last month, the interior ministry gave Afghans a deadline of 27 August to provide adequate paperwork, register or risk immediate expulsion. Hosseini said that since April, 12,000 Afghans had already been expelled for living "illegally" in the country, but denied claims that Tehran was stepping up pressure for Afghans to leave, IRNA said.