Two new repatriation registration centres for Afghans in Balochistan

In a further effort to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of thousands of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan's south western province of Balochistan, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has established two new voluntary repatriation centres (VRCs) in the north of the province, in addition to one already operating in the provincial capital, Quetta. "Earlier on, we were processing repatriation cases in these areas through mobile teams, which have been stationed now in different field offices to facilitate the refugees and also to save our time and resources," Dunya Aslam Khan, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said in Quetta. According to Khan, the VRCs have been set up in two northern districts of Pishin and Loralai. The Saranan repatriation point in Pishin also has an iris scanning facility, mandatory for any Afghan over the age of six wishing to receive UNHCR repatriation assistance, while those Afghans using the Laralai facility would have to use the iris scanning facility in Quetta, Khan elaborated. Chaman remains the only exit point for Afghans wishing to repatriate to their homeland from Balochistan, the UNHCR spokeswoman added. Balochistan continues to host well over 760,000 Afghan refugees, accounting for up to 25 percent of all the Afghans living in the South Asian nation, most of whom are ethnic Pashtun and belong to the southern provinces of Kandahar, Ghazni and Hilmand, according to the Afghan census conducted in the country in March 2005. A further analysis of the census revealed some 500,000 Afghans were living in urban and rural clusters of Balochistan, while more than 200,000 lived in the refugee camps. The provincial capital Quetta and adjacent Pishin districts are the most populous Afghan population hubs. Currently, there are some 10 Afghan refugee settlements being administered by the UN refugee agency, including three in southern Chaghai district, with the rest located in the northern districts of Killa Abdullah, Loralai, Pishin and Quetta, according to UNHCR. The UN refugee agency operates in seven out of 27 districts of Balochistan province, providing protection and assistance to Afghan and non-Afghan refugees, as well as facilitating the Afghan repatriation effort. Over 2.7 million Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan since the start of the UNHCR assisted voluntary repatriation programme in 2002, including well over 25,000 in 2006 alone - the last year of UNHCR assisted returns under a current tripartite agreement between Kabul, Islamabad and the UN refugee agency.