IRIN Focus on challenges facing returnees

The fruit trees in Safiewullah’s garden are bare now, victims of years of drought and unintentional neglect. He was only a baby when his family fled their home and its rich apricot orchard. For 20 years, he and his family lived in neighbouring Pakistan, in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp outside Peshawar, the provincial capital of that country’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). As a refugee, Nasir Bagh was the only home he had ever really known. Then, however, faced with eviction by the authorities and an increasingly uncertain future there, Safiewullah returned last week to reclaim his family’s home, and begin a new life in a country he barely knows. Although he is no longer a refugee, the challenges ahead of him are daunting, as they are to thousands of other returnees like him. “This is my country, my property and my original home,” he told IRIN. “I am willing to work this land, if I can,” he said. The long and dusty road leading to Paghman, 35 km west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, is synonymous with the difficult journey facing returning Afghans today. Re-establishing themselves after years of exile will not be easy. Obstacles abound along the way. Rusted remains of armoured vehicles fill the landscape, and many of the buildings, including Safiewullah’s home, were destroyed by the intense factional fighting that ravaged the region for years. Apart from the odd aid vehicle passing through, there is little or no traffic. The river that once flowed through the village has dried up, and the closest supply of fresh water is a four-kilometre trek away. Infrastructure is nonexistent. There is no water, no electricity, no sanitation, no schools, no health care, and clearly no work. But for Safiewullah, a former labourer, newly married and blinded by ambition, being able to stay is his main concern. “I am happy to be back, but we need shelter,” he said. He and the 25 other members of his family, including seven children, arrived in two trucks carrying all their possessions, including their dismantled house in Nasir Bagh. Wooden beams, doors and window frames litter the garden, while household items and clothing lie neatly packed away in the five tents they now call home. Two cows and a handful of chicken also made the arduous journey from Pakistan. Pointing to a stone foundation, he proudly indicates where the family home once stood, and where he plans to rebuild. Safiewullah is one of Afghanistan’s newest returnees, and he is not alone. UNHCR officials in Kabul told IRIN that between 8 and 31 July, some 1,173 families, or almost 6,000 people, returned voluntarily to their homeland from Pakistan, under the agency’s assisted repatriation programme. Most of them returned to Kabul Province, followed by the eastern Nangarhar and Parvan provinces. According to a UNHCR survey carried out last month, 93 percent of those repatriated returned to their home towns and villages. However, Afghans returning to their homeland is nothing new. In 2000 alone, almost 228,000 Afghans returned home from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, the two countries which host the bulk of Afghan refugees. Each of them hosts two million. According to UNHCR, of the 96,810 returnees from Pakistan, most, like Safiewullah, came from the NWFP. Last year, 31,574 returned from Pakistan to Afghanistan’s central region, primarily to the three provinces of Kabul, Lowgar and Vardak. The returnees were not keen to return to the provinces of Parvan and Kapisa due to insecurity. Asked if he was concerned over security in his area, Safiewullah said: “Of course I am concerned that fighting could break out again. But at this point I am more worried about thieves and finding work.” What drove Safiewullah home reflects the increasingly difficult situation facing Afghans in Pakistan and Iran. “Life was getting harder there,” he said. There was no work, opportunities were limited and police harassment was growing, he explained. With a combined family income of only US $80 per month to care for 26 people, coupled with an eviction notice to vacate their home at Nasir Bagh to make room for a new housing estate, Safiewullah’s father decided it was time to return home. How the family will fare on is difficult to gauge. Indeed, what is important now is the facilitation of their resettlement in a timely and proper manner. According to a UNHCR returnee-monitoring survey conducted in 2000, upon their return, about 26 percent of returnees became manual labourers, if they are able to find work. Many more worked in the agriculture and animal husbandry sector, while 16 percent remained unemployed. The senior programme assistant in Kabul, Rahamt Nabil, told IRIN: “Life is not easy once these people return.” Most people surveyed say they were happy to be back, but there remained numerous obstacles in their way to resuming a normal life in Afghanistan, he said. “As these people were living between five and 20 years in exile, the first challenge for them is shelter, followed by irrigation, potable water, education and health facilities - and of course employment. All of these items must be dealt with,” he added. The sustainability of their return is paramount, and UNHCR is monitoring the ramifications to better establish what is required on the ground. Moreover, the agency wants to play a more active role in other sectors relevant to reintegration, such as education, income generation, sanitation and agriculture. This could be done by providing information to more specialised agencies and NGOs operating in the central region, thus to jointly facilitate sustainable reintegration by extending assistance to returnees and returnee-impacted areas, Nabil said. Under the UNHCR’s assisted repatriation programme in Afghanistan, the five families within Safiewullah’s group were each given US $90 and 150 kg of wheat to facilitate their move. In addition, upon their return and verification of need, each family will receive UNHCR assistance to build a two-room shelter and latrine. The assistance includes doors, windows, and glass, while the family will provide the necessary bricks and straw for construction. Upon completion, an additional 250 kg of wheat will be provided. UNHCR field assistant Jaheed Ezatullah told IRIN that the total value of the contribution was between US $250 and US $300. Of the five families in Safiewullah’s group, three have qualified for shelter assistance, while the other two will have to share. “They did not meet the necessary criteria,” Ezatullah said. However, Safiewullah and his family are determined to stay. “Of course I miss Nasir Bagh, but I do not want to go back,” he says. Walking around his family’s garden, he stops to inspect the apricot trees his grandfather planted, and wonders whether they will ever bear fruit again. “I would like to think it’s possible,” he said. According to Ezatullah, there are some 3,000 families living in Paghman District, scattered among 65 villages. “More than 100 families have returned from Nasir Bagh and Jalozai refugee camps in Pakistan recently, and we are currently conducting a survey among these returnees to verify who requires shelter,” he said. “Once that is determined, the agency will provide assistance in accordance with the progress the family has made in its construction,” he added. Within three months these people should have a house, which is the main issue for the returning refugees, Ezatullah said. The question for aid agencies and the UN is whether less than hospitable conditions in both Pakistan and Iran will result in a greater upsurge in people returning, as well as what preparations are needed to facilitate their return and sustain it. Nabil said he expected the number of returnees to increase but that he could not estimate by how many. “That will depend on the pressure of the authorities in the host country [countries],” he added.