Afghans react strongly to EU repatriation initiative

Afghans across Europe have reacted strongly to a proposed European Union (EU) initiative to repatriate thousands of Afghan refugees living in the 15 nations comprising the Union. "The proposed repatriation of Afghan refugees lacks any legal and humanitarian basis," Mirza Alam Hamidi, a former Afghan government official told IRIN from Holland. "The reasons that forced Afghans to flee their homeland are very much the same." He added: "With the killing of two cabinet ministers and an assassination attempt on [President] Karzai, who says that Afghanistan is safe?" he asked. "Repatriating Afghans to a country where they will hardly find enough food to eat is plain discrimination," he exclaimed. His comments follow last week's meeting of European Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Luxembourg to debate a comprehensive plan by Denmark, currently holding the EU presidency, to facilitate the repatriation of some of the more than 400,000 Afghans living in Europe. The EU plan, set to be outlined towards the end of the year, would likely complement, rather than replace initiatives already begun by some of the bloc's members. International media reported that the first group of Afghans to return home voluntarily left France on Wednesday. The five returnees, who had been held at the controversial Sangatte immigrant centre near Calais in the north of the country, were given about US $2,000 each as part of the agreement reached between the French and Afghan authorities on the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees last month. Commenting on the proposed initiative, Rostar Tarakai, an Afghan legal expert residing in France told IRIN that there were two categories of Afghans in Europe. Many had valid travel documents and even held dual nationalities so any repatriation drive could not possibly target them, he explained. Tarakai noted, however, a large number of asylum seekers would be affected by such moves. "Politically - and keeping in view the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, this is not advisable at the moment," he said. Zareen Anzur, an Afghan writer living in Europe added that unfortunately people in Europe and the west believed that whatever was going on in Afghanistan was acceptable. "Unfortunately, that is not the ground reality," Anzur told IRIN. Having recently returned from his homeland to gauge his own prospects of return, only to return to Germany disillusioned, he remarked: "Only people connected to one or the other of the warring factions can survive there." But for Tarakai, the solution was clear, arguing the Afghan government should persuade the Western governments to rebuild Afghanistan first and to repatriate Afghan refugees later. "The international community should provide livelihood opportunities before they attempt such moves," he argued.