Mahkaki camp now under Northern Alliance control

While Taliban forces continue to retreat throughout Afghanistan, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Iran has confirmed to IRIN that the Mahkaki refugee camp adjacent to Sistan-Baluchestan Province, two kilometres from the Iranian border inside Afghanistan, came under Northern Alliance control on Tuesday. Although the situation is currently stable, there remains concern over security inside the camp.

"We are worried there might be Taliban forces still in the area," Mohammad Nouri, the agency's spokesman in the Iranian capital, Tehran, said on Wednesday. "Should fighting break out, many of the people at Mahkaki would be at risk. In such an event, we would call upon the Iranian government to consider opening its border to those at risk," he said.

Mahkaki, one of two camps being administered by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), holds about 6,000, mainly ethnic Pashtun refugees, the same group to which most Taliban members belong. There are also 2,000 - 3,000 other refugees outside the camp requiring further assistance. With its capacity filled, the Iranian government had offered to relocate this group to the Mile-46 camp, 35 km to the south, where assistance could be provided. However, new arrivals were reluctant to go to an area under the control of the Northern Alliance, aid workers said.

Unable to cross the border due to security concerns, UNHCR is not present in either camp. However, Nouri confirmed that Northern Alliance forces had already taken control of much of the territory along Iran's 900-km border with the country. Asked what implications this would have in terms of assistance, Nouri said: "If the camp [Mahkaki] is under the control of the Northern Alliance, we expect it will be much easier for the Iranians to coordinate relief efforts with them rather than the Taliban."

Commenting on the development, the Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) head of mission in Iran, Bruno Jochum, told IRIN they had just started activities in Mahkaki on Saturday to assist those people outside the camp area, who had not been receiving assistance. However, as Northern Alliance forces began approaching, that operation was suspended for obvious security reasons, he said.

Asked when they would be resuming their activities, he said MSF was currently on standby. "It's a complicated situation. Security is still unstable, and we have been told that there is no guarantee of security for foreign aid workers at the moment," he said.

Both Mahkaki and Mile-46 are makeshift camps recently established by the IRCS inside Afghanistan to cater for a possible major influx of new refugees. Despite calls by the UN to open its borders should this happen, Tehran maintains it can no longer host any more Afghan refugees, who it says currently number well over two million. Instead, the government proposed establishing a series of camps inside Afghan territory. Mahkaki and Mile-46 are the only operational camps to date.