UNHCR to suspend repatriation over Eid

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday announced it would temporarily suspend the voluntary repatriation programme for Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan for a brief period of five days starting from Thursday due to the Islamic festival of Eid. "Repatriation is already slow and the number of returnees [Afghans] has dropped significantly over the past four weeks partially due to Ramadan [the Islamic period of fasting prior to Eid] and partly to falling temperatures. On Saturday, some 366 individuals returned while on Sunday only 44 Afghans [were] repatriated," Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for UNHCR in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said on Monday. As of 31 October, more than 427,000 Afghan refugees had returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan under the UNHCR's voluntary repatriation assistance programme that resumed in March after a winter break. According to UNHCR, only about 14,000 Afghans left Pakistan during the month of October 2005. However, there is no record of spontaneous repatriation, although a significant number do cross into Afghanistan through borders without approaching the UN refugee agency. So far the largest number of Afghans repatriating with the help of UNHCR is from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) with over 280,000 returnees including more than 186,000 from refugee camps and another some 95,000 living elsewhere. Of the other three provinces, from Balochistan over 76,000 Afghans were repatriated - mostly living outside UNHCR-administered refugee camps - from Punjab some 47,000 and from Sindh about 22,000 Afghans returned. "Every year around winter, the repatriation starts to slow down, but we'll continue to operate throughout the season adjusting our staff requirements and working days accordingly, corresponding to the number of returnees approaching our repatriation centres," Tan added. Under the programme, started in 2002, over 2.7 million Afghans have returned so far from Pakistan with nearly 1.6 million repatriated in 2002, followed by some 340,000 in 2003 and more than 380,000 in 2004. This programme is governed by a tripartite agreement between Kabul, Islamabad and UNHCR that runs till December 2006. Afghan returnees are eligible for transport assistance ranging from US $4 to $37 per person, depending on the distance to their destination. Additionally, they also receive a small grant to help them with additional costs. According to UNHCR, at least 15 Afghan refugees were killed in the devastating earthquake earlier this month in which at least 54,000 people perished. Seven of the dead Afghans were from the two camps located in Mansehra and Batagram districts of NWFP, while eight others from outside the camps.