Refugee iris identification centre to close

The Iris Verification Centre (IVC) in Chaman, southwestern Pakistan, is to be closed due to the seasonal decline in the number of returning Afghan refugees, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), announced on Thursday. The area will now be served by a mobile unit. "The closure is mainly an operational decision. The centre in Chaman was catering for those coming from Karachi and Chaman. These people will now be able to use the centre in Quetta, whilst the mobile units will be able to visit the other camps," Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN, from the southwestern city of Quetta, on Friday. The verification process takes an image of the iris in the eye, recording it as a number but without recording the owner's name, gender, age or destination. The procedure makes it possible to detect any refugee who has already claimed assistance. The mobile unit will carry out the verification process using two computers, and it will process all the refugees returning from camps in the Chaman area. Meanwhile, the Baleli IVC in Quetta will serve all refugees returning from urban areas in the Balochistan Province. "The mobile units can travel to any camp. In Chaman, the security situation often made accessibility difficult. The refugees will now be able to be verified on the spot with the mobile units. They will not need to stop at Chaman if they are coming from other camps," Baloch said. All Afghan refugees over the age of six returning to Afghanistan are being scanned to determine if they qualified for UNHCR assistance. Iris scanning was introduced in September 2002 to prevent people from making more than one return claim. UNHCR hoped that the procedure would save donor money as well as ensure assistance went to deserving refugees. "The iris verification system has been very successful. All of the centres share data and are interlinked. It is not possible to cross into Quetta and then attempt to cross again into Alizai, in the North West Frontier Province [NWFP]," Baloch commented. Baloch believes that word of mouth about the IVCs has also acted as a deterrent to people attempting to make multiple returns to Afghanistan. It is estimated that only 1 percent of those scanned were trying to claim assistance for the second time. UNHCR will now have three IVCs operating across the country: one in Alizai, in the NWFP, one in the Hayatabad District of Peshawar, also in the NWFP, and one in Quetta. To date, some 69,000 Afghan refugees have left Balochistan for home this year. Of this number, 34,000 went through the iris verification system. As of 27 August, 276,290 Afghan refugees had returned from Pakistan.