Tripartite refugee commission meets

A three-way commission, mandated to oversee the repatriation of Afghan refugees to their homeland, held its fourth meeting in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday. A spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called the meeting "successful". The Tripartite Commission was created in March 2003, after an agreement was signed between the government of Pakistan, the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and UNHCR, which governs the repatriation process for Afghan refugees opting to return home to Afghanistan. "It moved the discussion along and we resolved some of the minor questions. But it also moved us along towards thinking about where we're heading over the next couple of years and beyond," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN in Islamabad. The meeting came three weeks after the resumption of the repatriation process, which was suspended in November following the murder of a UNHCR worker in southern Afghanistan. The agreement, governing the repatriation process, runs through 2005. "Everybody is quite conscious that this existing agreement only runs until March 2006, and after that, we'll have to think about how we're going to handle any residual Afghan populations here in Pakistan," Redden said. Not all Afghans in Pakistan are refugees so the commission would have to think in terms of how to approach that angle, he explained. "Some will require the continued protection of UNHCR as refugees but, perhaps, others will fall under some sort of a migration agreement between the countries," Redden maintained. Chaired by the government of Pakistan, the meeting took note of the fact that more than 20,000 refugees have returned to Afghanistan since the repatriation process restarted in early March 2004. The three parties agreed that more intensive efforts will be made to inform refugee communities of improved conditions in areas of likely return, a UNHCR press statement said. "These steps will include the identification of specific areas within Afghanistan where the situation is more conducive to return, improved dissemination of information, including by radio, and more contacts between communities of origin and refugee communities," the statement added. The commission also said that there needed to be more focused attention on potential obstacles to refugee return, such as access to land. "That's an ongoing thing because the question of land is one of the obstacles that comes up continually with refugees: that they don't have land and therefore, they can't move back," Redden explained, adding that a resolution of land allocation questions by the Afghan government would help those trying to return. The members agreed on the importance of ensuring that refugees are registered and able to vote in the Afghan elections announced for September 2004, UNHCR said. "The government of Pakistan reiterated its willingness to facilitate the process on its territory and awaits a formal announcement from the government of Afghanistan that it wishes to conduct polling in Pakistan and Iran," it added. "Since it is holding an election for another country in Pakistan, Pakistan has to be party to the agreement under which this is going to be done," Redden stressed. "But Pakistan is very supportive of the Afghans voting in the elections in Afghanistan. The concern is purely on the short time available to get moving on this," he maintained. The commission also agreed that a report by the Working Group on Census and Registration of Afghans in Pakistan should examine the possibility of incorporating the out-of-country voter registration into the planned Afghan census and registration. A United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA)representative in Islamabad will be invited to join the group, which will develop a plan of action, to be presented to all stakeholders by the third week of April.