UNHCR to move Afghan refugees from camp by March

Just over 10,000 Afghan refugees sheltered in a remote refugee camp in the Khyber Agency, about 70 km from Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), are to be offered a choice between repatriation and or relocation to another camp in Pakistan by March, according to an official of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official.

"The decision to either repatriate or relocate the people in Shalman Camp has been under discussion for several months with both the refugees and the government of Pakistan," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

Shalman Camp, which had to be supplied with water by tanker trucks provided by UNHCR, was plagued by unbearably hot summers and bitterly cold winters, a UNHCR press release said. The decision to move the 10,000 refugees from Shalman, had been influenced by the fact it is sited in a waterless valley near the Khyber Pass and by the logistical difficulties faced in providing it with humanitarian services, it added.

The Shalman camp was one of nine such makeshift arrangements set up by the Pakistan government and UNHCR following the US-led war against terror in Afghanistan in late 2001, which prompted thousands of people to flee across the border into Pakistan.

"All the inmates will be offered a choice to either repatriate to their country or to relocate to other camps, such as the Kotkai and Barkali camps in Bajaur Agency," Redden said, adding that both the alternative locations were well supplied with water.

Meanwhile, however, the repatriation programme remains in suspension. "The repatriation programme is entirely suspended, because one of our [UNHCR] colleagues was murdered in Afghanistan last month. We have told the government that we will not be able to resume the programme until we are sure, or are given assurances, that our staff's safety is ensured," Redden stressed.