UNHCR suspends Afghan repatriation from Pakistan

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Monday the suspension of the voluntary repatriation assistance programme for Afghans living in Pakistan. The programme is being suspended from 27 December and will resume by 1 March next year. "In the past two years, we suspended it just during February, so it's for two months this time. It's [only] a small number [of refugees] repatriating at this time of the year, so it would not have much impact... It has been suspended from Pakistan only and not from Iran," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Only 126 individuals went through UNHCR repatriation facilities on Sunday, raising the total since the start of the season in March this year to 382,781 Afghans, according to a UNHCR press statement. Since the start of voluntary repatriation assistance programme in 2002, UNHCR has assisted some 2,290,950 Afghans to repatriate from Afghanistan. A further 779,000 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from Iran with UNHCR assistance while another 321,000 repatriated on their own. "Looking at the small number of returnees, it was decided to keep the programme closed, and was better to spend the time in training the staff. Also, early this year, they [staff] would be assisting in some of the preparations for a proposed government census of all the Afghans living in Pakistan," Redden said. Under the repatriation programme, the refugee agency offers Afghans wishing to return to their homeland a package of travel assistance, varying from $8 to $30 per person, depending on the distance travelled, and a cash payment of $12 per person to help them get re-established in Afghanistan, the press statement said. All the benefits are paid on arrival in Afghanistan, the statement added. All those repatriating who are over the age of six are required to go through an iris verification test to avail themselves of the assistance, to ensure that no one receives the return help more than once. "Younger people cannot be tested in this way, so various verification checks are made by UNHCR staff. In general, they are interviewed to make sure that children really are from that family and that they are legitimate returnees. And so on that they know the place they are going to and where they came from," Redden said. The UNHCR estimates that about a million Afghans are still living in refugee camps in Pakistan, some of them dating back 25 years, while a substantial number of Afghans live in urban settlements in Pakistani cities. According to UNHCR, this is the largest voluntary assisted return programme in the 53-year history of the UN agency, with a total of more than three million people who have been helped to return to Afghanistan over the last three years. The UN refugee agency operates the voluntary repatriation assistance programme for Afghans under a tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The programme will resume on 1 March 2005, marking the launch of the final year of the programme, which runs until March 2006.