Continuing repatriation could cause destabilisation, says NGO

The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), an independent research institution, recently issued a report saying that the Afghan government and the aid community had been premature in encouraging the return of nearly two million refugees in 2002. "Certainly, mistakes were made by the international community and by the government in Afghanistan in encouraging a wide range of refugees to return," Andrew Wilder, AREU’s director, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. AREU’s report underlined growing concern that continuing short-sightedness about the country’s ability to absorb millions of extra people in its cities, towns and countryside would put more lives at risk as the 2003 repatriation season gets under way in March. The report says it was precisely the weak position of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in relation to the policies of its donors and hosts that prompted it to launch a "facilitated" repatriation programme in early 2002. "We should not create an avoidable humanitarian crisis by facilitating the return of large numbers," Wilder said, noting that donors should support refugee-protection programmes in Pakistan and Iran. "It will be in the best interest of refugees to remain where they are," he said. The UNHCR has dismissed the AREU report, saying UNHCR and other agencies had done nothing to encourage refugees to return, "I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding: the government and UNHCR with the support of the donors only assisted those who expressed a wish to come back," Filippo Grandi, the UNHCR chief of mission for Afghanistan, told IRIN in Kabul. Grandi said donor assistance for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran had been minimal over the past eight years, "Why did they not return in the years before?" he asked, noting that the establishment of the new interim authority in Kabul coupled with an end to the conflict and better security had been important factors in encouraging widespread returns. "We say to returnees that the situation in Afghanistan is still difficult," he said, adding that the agency should not be blamed for assisting those who were willing to return. According to AREU, 1.8 million Afghans were repatriated from Pakistan and Iran between March and November 2002. Kabul, a capital in name only, has received more than half a million returnees over the past year. The most pressing problems the returnees face are unemployment and lack of adequate shelter. "It has been six months, I am living in a ruin," Turan Nur Mohammad, the representative of 300 returnee families living at the Huzuri camp in Kabul, told IRIN. "We were promised by UNHCR to be supported for six months," he said, noting that because he had received no assistance he would have returned to either Pakistan or Iran if he had had the money. But UNHCR says it has already built 50,000 houses in 2002 and will build another 60,000 this year. The agency is also calling for increased donor commitment for development aassistance. "Employment and services such as schools, hospitals and other economic opportunities should be given for returnees," Grandi said. The returnee issue is also weighing heavily on the government's mind. The country's shattered infrastructure clearly cannot cope with the numbers of those who have returned voluntarily. Kabul therefore does not want pressure to be brought to bear on it by its neighbours to accept more refugees before it is in a position to absorb them. "We are trying to sign a tripartite agreement with Pakistan and Iran not to push Afghan refugees to return, because the situation is not conducive," Habibollah Qadiri, the chief adviser to the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, told IRIN in Kabul. An executive summary of the AREU report, 'Taking Refugees for a Ride'