More accessible repatriation centre opens for refugees

On Monday the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees {UNHCR) and the government of Pakistan opened a new type of Voluntary Repatriation Centre (VRC) for Afghan refugees in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), renaming it an Iris Validation Centre. The Iris device identifies people through the iris in their eyes on photographs taken for repatriation forms. It converts a photographic image of the iris into a digital code and only requires a second to check whether the person has already received assistance. "The old VRC in the Takhta Baig area of Peshawar has been closed down and the new one in Hayatabad is far more accessible for the refugees as it is right in the middle of the Afghan community," spokesman for UNHCR in Pakistan, Jack Redden told IRIN from the capital, Islamabad on Tuesday. The new centre is located in the Hayatabad area of the provincial capital, Peshawar and is equipped with drinking water, bathrooms and shaded areas to protect refugees from the stifling heat soon to descend on the province. Officials say the centre is better located and the new process adopted for the repatriation procedure is far more effective. "We used to do the full process of filling out the forms at the VRC but this is now done in advance by mobile teams who validate in advance. Now, it is only the last stage of the process and the Iris check that will be carried out at the new centre," he said, adding that it was a far more thorough procedure as there were less refugees at the centre at any one time. Redden maintained that the introduction of the Iris scan had almost eliminated the problem of Afghan refugees returning to Pakistan to try their luck in collecting a second repatriation package from the agency. Under the repatriation programme for 2003, UNHCR has assisted some 62,965 refugees in Pakistan since 2 March, of which 35,000 were from the NWFP and 25,000 from the south western province of Baluchistan, Sindh and central Punjab provinces. Last year more than 2 million Afghans returned home.