Sudden return of Afghans could cause crisis, UNHCR warns

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has called on the government of Pakistan not to close a refugee camp in its North West Frontier Province (NWFP) until spring 2008.

Pakistani security forces have ordered over 100,000 Afghan refugees currently living in Jalozai camp to leave the site by 31 August.

"We are worried that if there is a sudden return of Afghans from the camp this may turn into a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan," said Salvatore Lombardo, a UNHCR representative in Kabul.

Pakistani soldiers have already surrounded the camp and have knocked down a few shops run by Afghan refugees, camp residents told IRIN.

"We have been repeatedly warned to vacate the camp within a week," said Haji Noorullah, a representative of the Jalozai camp refugees.

The agreement to close four Afghan refugee camps in 2007 in NWFP and Balochistan, including Jalozai, was reached after negotiations between Afghanistan, Pakistan and UN representatives.

We are worried that if there is a sudden return of Afghans from the camp this may turn into a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

With winter only a few months away, the UNHCR now believes a quick closure of the Jalozai camp would not allow sufficient time for the returnees to rebuild their houses and reintegrate in their war-torn country.

Insecurity, which has impeded access to many volatile areas of Afghanistan, is another major concern for returning refugees and aid organisations.

"The response community in Afghanistan is already exhausted by the humanitarian crisis in the country, returns and internal displacement, and appropriate mechanisms do not exist to deal with more returns at this stage," said Ann Kristin Brunborg, a representative of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Afghanistan.

Diplomatic efforts

The UN says it has begun vigorous diplomatic efforts in Kabul and Islamabad to try to raise awareness among both Afghan and Pakistani authorities of the consequences that a closure of Jalozai in 2007 would produce.

"Our concerns have been listened to positively, but so far no agreement on the extension of the deadline has been reached," Lombardo told reporters in Kabul on 23 August.

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The government of Afghanistan should also say that it cannot handle large-scale returns at this time, the NRC told IRIN.

In May the lower house of Afghanistan's bicameral National Assembly cast a vote of no confidence in the ministers of foreign affairs, and refugees and returnees, for their alleged inability to manage the crisis following the deportation of thousands of Afghans from Iran.

"We are trying to convince the Pakistani authorities to temporarily suspend the closure of Jalozai camp," said Shojauddin Shoja, an adviser to Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Returnees.

Allowed to stay

More than 3.16 million Afghans have been repatriated from Pakistan to their home country since 2002, the UNHCR said.

Additionally, over two million Afghan refugees have also been registered to live in Pakistan until December 2009.

The government of Pakistan has, meanwhile, agreed that it will not force registered Afghan refugees to return to their country, even in cases of camp closure. The refugees should have a chance of relocation within Pakistan, the UN says.

Photo: V.Tan/UNHCR

A grocery shop in Jalozai camp, where more than 100,000 Afghan refugees live

Some residents of Jalozai camp, however, say they have been ordered to leave the camp for Afghanistan.

Insecurity, lack of shelter and limited livelihoods are the top three problems facing about 84 percent of all Afghan refugees in Pakistan who do not want to return to Afghanistan, the UNHCR found in June.

Since the US-led invasion in 2001 there has been an ambitious reconstruction agenda and over four million refugees have returned, but Afghanistan still faces serious humanitarian challenges and lacks the capacity to absorb returnees.

Millions of Afghans migrated to Pakistan, Iran and other countries after their country was invaded by Soviet forces in 1979. Many Afghans also left after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 when Afghanistan suffered a long period of chaos before and during Taliban rule which ended in 2001.

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