Refugee returns diminishing due to insecurity

Over 100,000 Afghan refugees have so far returned home this year, but this is just one-quarter of the number of those repatriated over the same period last year, the reduction being due to deteriorating security in their country, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed to IRIN on Friday. "It was never expected that we would have the same figures as last year, and those whom we were anxious to see go left immediately. But we know that security is also an influencing factor," the spokesman for UNHCR in Pakistan, Jack Redden, told IRIN from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Of the 100,000 returnees this year, more than 65,000 were from Pakistan and nearly 35,000 from Iran. "Returning refugees say that more Afghan families will return if security is improved, especially in the southern provinces, and if there are more job prospects and reconstruction inside Afghanistan," the UNHCR spokeswoman in Afghanistan, Maki Shinohara, said at a news briefing in the capital, Kabul. "The number that returned last year was four times more than we expected," Redden added. The refugee agency has stressed its concern over the security situation, and maintains that repatriation should be voluntary and gradual. "In the recent tripartite meeting between UNHCR, the Pakistani authorities and Afghan authorities, the group fully endorsed the concept of slow and gradual return," Redden said. This point was supported by Pakistan's Minister of Kashmir Affairs, Northern Areas and States and Frontier Regions, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, during a visit to Kabul earlier this week. He reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to ensuring the voluntary nature of Afghan returns, and pledged continued support to rebuild Afghanistan. UNHCR plans to assist up to 1.5 million Afghans to go home this year, comprising 600,000 from Pakistan, 500,000 from Iran, 100,000 from other countries, as well as 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). Last year, the agency and its partners helped some 1.8 million Afghan refugees and 250,000 Dips to return home. However, lack of funding for the repatriation programme is causing concern, as donor pledges have not been turned into cash. "We are really concerned about funds as they will affect the programme. We have only received 37 percent of the US $194 million needed," Redden warned.