Repatriation from Pakistan picks up pace

UNHCR officials in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday received 1,617 Afghan returnees, the largest number in a single day so far, as part of the agency’s voluntary repatriation programme this year.

The programme, which began on 7 July, has facilitated the return of almost 14,000 Afghans to date from Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

“Compared to the same period last year, the number of repatriated is much higher now,” Hassan Mohmoud, the UNHCR officer in charge in Jalalabad, told IRIN on Thursday. Of about 80,000 Afghans repatriated from Pakistan last year, 56,440 came through this eastern region, he said.

Wednesday’s arrivals, who comprised 329 families - 142 of them from the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Peshawar, the capital of the NWFP, and 187 from the nearby makeshift Jalozai camp - came in two separate convoys of a total of 72 trucks.

After passing the Towr Kham border crossing, the returnees travelled to the UNHCR encashment centre Jalalabad in the eastern province of Nangarhar, one of two such facilities serving returnees in the country. Last year, the centre received 80 percent of all returning Afghans.

Returnees were registered and given a repatriation package of US $90 in cash, 150 kg of wheat and one plastic sheeting per family, before proceeding to their villages of origin. In addition, children were vaccinated against measles and polio. Heads of households were also briefed on the dangers of land mines in some affected areas.

According to Mohmoud, there are three factors attributable for the increase in the number of returnees: repatriation had been postponed due to operational constraints prior to the beginning of July, allowing more time for preparation by the refugees; the situation in the camps, particularly in Jalozai, was not much better than the life the returnees faced in their home villages; and, the Afghans were feeling increasingly pressurised by the Pakistani authorities to return home.

While this week’s figures reflect a positive increase in the number of Afghans who are prepared to return to their homeland, the question being asked is how sustainable the programme will prove.

Many are unsure of what they will find when they got home. In fact, most of the second generation Afghans have never been to their homeland and know no other life other than what they have experienced in Pakistan after being there for more than 20 years.

Asked if he was pleased to be back in Afghanistan, Muhammad Harf, a former driver from Nasir Bagh, seemed convinced that it had to be better than life in Pakistan.

“Who wouldn’t be happy to be back in his home?” Harf told IRIN. “I don’t have a job, but I won’t return. If my family is here, this is where I will stay,” the 39 year-old asserted. But with 10 children and two wives to feed, his wheat allotment will not last long if he remains unemployed.

Twenty year-old Shamsul Huda was more pragmatic. Having lived his entire life in Nasir Bagh, he has never been to Goraik, his village of origin, 40 km north of Jalalabad, and has minimal expectations.

“They call this a voluntary repatriation programme, but its real name is deportation,” the father of two told IRIN.

He maintained that the government had made the situation in Pakistan unbearable for Afghans. “I didn’t come voluntarily. The Pakistani government gave us a deadline, and here we are,” he said.

After receiving his cash allotment from UNHCR, Shamsul Huda said he would try to rebuild his family home if he could, but conceded that if he didn’t find work, he would have to leave his family behind and return to Peshawar. This is a recurring problem with returnees, and many of the male heads of household have already crossed back into Pakistan to look for work.
“We are very much concerned about this, and have deliberately worked to repatriate people to areas where sustainability could be achieved,” Mohmoud said.

“Nonetheless, some people are returning to no-go areas affected by drought and war, as they say they have no other option,” he added.