Afghan repatriation increasing

A repatriation programme for Afghan refugees intending to return to their war-ravaged country has gathered pace since it resumed in early March, with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff saying they expected the exodus to increase further, provided the situation continues to improve in Afghanistan. "The pace has already picked up. We expect it to go to go up even further, provided the situation in Afghanistan continues to improve," Richard Ndaula, a UNHCR associate repatriation officer, told IRIN in the north-western city of Peshawar, capital of North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP) which borders Afghanistan. The programme, which began in early 2002 and is scheduled to run until 2006 according to a tripartite agreement between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan and UNHCR, was suspended late last year following the murder of a UNHCR employee in Afghanistan and resumed only after both governments pledged to increase security. In just over a month and half, over 76,000 people have been repatriated to Afghanistan with UNHCR assistance, according to Ndaula. CONVOY DAY On Wednesday, known amongst agency staffers as "convoy" day because of the designated weekly arrival of refugees from Islamabad and Karachi in convoys, dozens of huge, overloaded trucks dwarfed smaller passenger vehicles parked in rows outside the Iris Verification Centre (IVC) on the outskirts of Peshawar. Inside the centre's compound, dozens of men stood in single file while burqa-clad women and children squatted in similar rows, waiting for their turn to have their identity ascertained through a UNHCR mechanism devised to prevent would-be returnees from claiming an agency assistance package for a second - and, therefore, unlawful - time. Each returning refugee is required to undergo an iris verification scan where the image is stored in a central computer database and can be accessed in seconds, negating, what UNHCR staff call, recyclers' attempts to gain a second helping of the assistance package. 300 FAMILIES IN A DAY "Since this morning, we've already processed about 300 families today," Wajiha Afzal, a UNHCR repatriation clerk at the IVC, told IRIN as another UNHCR staffer, deputed to maintain order, shooed a couple of children back into their queue. On other days, roughly 70 to 75 families saw their identities verified through the iris verification process, Afzal added. "The process is going smoothly enough. The only problems we sometimes face is when some people lose their children. That's why we have these ushers" - she turned and pointed to a blue cap-clad young man busily pointing the way back to their row to a couple of scantily-clothed small children - "so that they can keep an eye on these little ones," she said. In another row of people, where young and old men, all bearded, pressed against each other in their impatience to get the process over with, an old man with a grey-flecked beard and sad, but still piercing eyes, told IRIN that he was returning to his country after 22 years. "My home is in Gardez, Paktia. I have land there which my nephew has been tending to, so I have something to go back to," Hajraz Khan, the old refugee, said. Paktia's security situation didn't bother him, he added. "I'm finally going home. That's all I know," he asserted. GOOD SIGN "More and more Pashtuns are leaving for the provinces in the eastern belt: Nangarhar and Kunar, for example, which is a good sign," Ndaula said, as he pointed out that the majority of returning refugees were Pashtuns. Refugees had begun to come in from all across Pakistan and, particularly, the NWFP, Ndaula said. "We've had people come in from places like Hangu and Mansehra as word has got around about the programme restarting. This is another good sign," he added. Meanwhile, at the IVC, another small child had slipped through the ropes separating one row from the other and peeked playfully inside the makeshift cubicle where refugees entered to have their eyes scanned. "When I came here, I was about this child's age," Ahmed Khan, another refugee who said he was returning to Afghanistan after almost 20 years, told IRIN. "I'm grateful for everything we've received in Pakistan, the help, the hospitality. But I think it's time for me to go back to Kabul, where my home is. I can resume my work as a carpenter there because I've heard things are better now," he explained.