Screening of Jalozai refugees set to begin

The screening of refugees at the controversial makeshift camp at Jalozai in northwestern Pakistan is scheduled to begin on Thursday, as a first step towards the subsequent repatriation of Afghan refugees, the Commissioner for Afghan Refugees in Peshawar, Naeem Khan, told IRIN on Wednesday. Khan said all the necessary preparations for the screening had been completed, and that a team was undergoing intensive training by representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva and Peshawar on Wednesday. Yusuf Hassan, UNHCR regional spokesman for southwestern and Central Asia, confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday that an agreement had been reached with the Pakistan authorities on establishing a long-awaited formal screening process at Jalozai. “Those who are in need of protection would be moved to New Shamshatoo [a refugee camp near the western city of Peshawar], while those screened out would be returned back home,” Hassan said. However, he remained sceptical that Thursday 21 June, as indicated by the government, would materialise as the starting date. “We have an agreed understanding on the screening proposal [in Jalozai], but we are awaiting a response from the government. As soon as that agreement has been signed, we will start the screening process, which will continue for up to two months,” he said. Meanwhile, Khan said that a full team of 90 staff was ready to launch the process. The staff consisted of 30 officers from UNHCR in Peshawar and an equal number from the Commission for Afghan Refugees, as well as 30 Afghan interpreters. Jalozai camp has been at the centre of a long-standing dispute between UNHCR and Pakistani officials over the status of refugees there. In late January, regional Pakistani authorities suspended UNHCR’s refugee verification process, effectively blocking the transfer of refugees to better sites from what had been planned as a short-term reception centre. Any formal UN assistance since then remained limited until 24 May, when the UN in Pakistan announced that it had begun extending temporary emergency assistance to the camp’s 80,000 occupants. UNHCR had repeatedly requested the authorities to conduct a screening programme in Jalozai to determine how many genuine refugees were in the camp, to enable relief aid to be targeted more effectively. “Screening can only be done in collaboration with the host nation, as it grants refugee status,” Hassan told IRIN earlier. Meanwhile, refugees in neighbouring Nasir Bagh camp, one of the oldest refugee communities in the town, established in the 1980s, may also be screened once a formal process got under way, Khan said. The future of the 12,000 families there has remained in doubt ever since the provincial government imposed an eviction order on the tight-knit community, telling its members to leave by 30 June to make way for a new housing development. Media reports this week to the effect that they had been given a temporary reprieve until October were unsubstantiated, Khan told IRIN. “This agreement was not conducted at the proper levels. It was not approved by the governor [of North-West Frontier Province] or the provincial government,” the Commissioner said. The 30 June deadline for the refugees to vacate the camp still stood, according to Khan.