Three Afghan refugee camps to close within two months

Delegates from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the office of the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have agreed to close three Afghan refugee facilities at the end of July, officials said on Thursday. The agreement came after a two-day meeting in the Qatari capital Doha, held this week to discuss the long-term future of Afghan nationals living in Pakistan. Participating were representatives of the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and UNHCR – a group that governs the voluntary repatriation programme of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. “Three refugee camps, including two in southern Balochistan province and one, Katcha Garhi in NWFP [North West Frontier Province], will be closed by the end of July, while the closure of another, Jalozai camp in NWFP, has been postponed to 2007,” UNHCR spokewoman Vivian Tan said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Pakistani delegation wants to push ahead with a plan to close all Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan within three years and urged the Afghan government to develop a mirror strategy for the reintegration of those Afghans from the camps that will be phased out, a UNHCR press statement said. Nearly 69,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan so far this year with UNHCR assistance, bringing the total who have voluntarily repatriated since 2002 to more than 2.7 million. The programme, which operates under a tripartite agreement between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan and UNHCR, is now in its last operational year. Despite the programme, Pakistan still hosts more than 2.6 million Afghans.