UNHCR suspends repatriation operation ahead of Afghan election

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday announced it plans to temporarily suspend its repatriation operation for Afghan refugees from Pakistan for about a week from 14 September until after Afghanistan's parliamentary election. "The registration of Afghans, those who wish to repatriate through UNHCR, would continue in between. However, further processing of the cases at repatriation and departure centres would remain closed till 20 September," Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman, said in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. To further enhance security on the volatile border with Afghanistan, Islamabad on Monday announced it would deploy thousands of additional troops during the Afghan parliamentary and provincial council elections scheduled for 18 September. According to Pakistan's armed forces' spokesman, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, around 5,000 extra troops had been sent to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and 4,500 more to the southern province of Balochistan, taking the total deployed in the border areas to almost 80,000. Meanwhile, all crossing points on the border with Afghanistan have been sealed except at Chaman in Balochistan, for people travelling with proper legal documents. Although given the length of the border and rugged terrain, it was impossible to seal the frontier completely, said Sultan. Under its voluntary repatriation assistance programme, UNHCR has so far helped more than 2.6 million Afghans to return to Afghanistan, including over 350,000 so far in 2005. Since 12 August, after Pakistani authorities announced plans to close all refugee facilities in the restive western tribal region of FATA, the UN refugee agency has helped some 100,000 Afghans to repatriate to Afghanistan. According to UNHCR, of 90,000 Afghan refugees who registered with the agency for repatriation from Kurram agency, some 80,000 have been processed as of Tuesday. While about another 19,000 have left from Bajaur tribal agency out of a total of 27,000 who have registered with UNHCR for repatriation.