Amnesty concerned over refugee returns from Europe

Amnesty International (AI) urged the EU to postpone the repatriation of thousands of Afghan refugees after member states prepared to press ahead with their controversial plan to do so on Thursday. "Our main concern is that it is simply not safe for them to return, never mind the other difficulties they will face once they are there, in terms of rebuilding their lives," the head of AI's EU office, Dick Oosting, told IRIN from Brussels on Friday. EU ministers are pressing ahead with a plan to repatriate 1,500 Afghan refugees a month, after the EC unblocked €7 million (US $8 million) to help resettle them once they reach home. The EC, which is the EU's executive arm, estimates there are up to 400,000 Afghans living in Europe, both legally and illegally. "While Amnesty does not oppose the voluntary return of refugees to Afghanistan, the organisation is deeply concerned that forcible returns are made possible by the EU return plan," an AI statement said. The EU drive, first announced in November last year, was set to begin last month, in cooperation with the office if the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and NGOs. "The 15-nation EU believes enough stability has returned to Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban to warrant the plan, which, while voluntary, does not rule out forced returns of refugees," the statement said. Oosting explained that there had been no formal response from the EU as yet to the statement. "People are sympathetic and concerned, but there is pressure from the member states to go ahead with the repatriation," he added. He maintained that the best procedure for repatriation would be for the EU to carry out its own assessment of the situation in the battered country, which has suffered from more than two decades of war. More than a year after the fall of the Taliban regime, the Afghan capital, Kabul, is the only part of the country being patrolled by international peacekeepers, and fully under the authority of President Hamid Karzai's government. "The international community, including the European Union, should not be holding Afghanistan's long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation hostage by rushing to return people to an unsustainable situation," Oosting warned. The UN Security Council has also expressed serious concern over the deterioration of security in many areas of Afghanistan, as well as the recent attacks on UN and other aid workers. Members of the Council underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability in Afghanistan, and called on all actors in the country to work together with the international community to ensure the success of the peace process. The Council also stressed that the Afghan Transitional Authority must receive adequate support from the international community in this regard, advocating the need for reforms in the security sector, starting with the defence ministry. The UNHCR has aligned itself with AI's concern over the repatriation plan, having issued a statement a few weeks earlier stating that deteriorating security in Afghanistan would affect refugee returns. "Security conditions are worsening in some parts of Afghanistan. But it is difficult to say that Afghans should not be returning when 2 million have already gone back," a spokesman for UNHCR in Geneva, Rupert Colville, told IRIN on Friday. Meanwhile, doubts over the safety of Afghans in neighbouring Pakistan have been raised by the Afghan government, following reports that large number of Afghan refugees had been arrested by provincial security forces in the North Frontier Province. "The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses concern about the arrests of Afghans, and has transmitted the government's views on the subject through diplomatic channels to the Pakistani authorities," a spokesman for the foreign ministry, Omar Samad, told IRIN in Kabul. "The Afghan government hopes that the government of Pakistan will find a solution and address the concerns expressed by the Afghan side," he added.