Repatriation effort in full swing

Twin efforts to assist hundreds of thousands of Afghans repatriate from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran - the two countries hosting the largest number of Afghan refugees - were in full swing on Wednesday with the number returning fast approaching 300,000. The joint voluntary repatriation programmes, between the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Pakistani and Iranian governments, aim to assist 800,000 Afghans return to their homeland this year. "As of Tuesday evening we had 267,572 just from Pakistan," a UNHCR spokeswoman, Melita Sunjic, told IRIN from the western Pakistani border town of Peshawar. "At that speed, I expect we could surpass 300,000 by this weekend," she maintained. The programme, which began on 1 April, has met unprecedented enthusiasm from Afghans wanting to take advantage of an assistance package including both food and non-food items, as well as a small cash grant. "Our capacity has increased every day as more mobile registration teams take to the roads," Sunjic said. Up to 15 such teams are currently operating in Pakistan's major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta. These are in addition to the already established four voluntary registration centres (VRCs) - three in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and one in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. "Operations are going smoothly," she said. "On our largest day we succeeded in registering more than 14,000 at our Takhtabaig VRC," she explained. Takhtabaig, 16 km west from Peshawar, is the first and currently the largest VRC in operation. Meanwhile in Iran, UNHCR, which began a similar repatriation drive on 9 April, reported as of Tuesday that 4,979 Afghans had participated in the programme so far. While numbers were initially low - beginning with 146 on the first day - on Sunday, 1,588 registered for the assistance package. "All indicators suggest the numbers are increasing," the agency's spokesman, Mohammad Nouri, told IRIN from the Iranian capital, Tehran. "The 400,000 planned target figure will most probably be met," he maintained. Returning families in Iran can register at one of nine VRCs located throughout the country, including the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Zahedan, Esfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, Qom, Kerman and Arak. Upon registration, returnees are provided transportation to Dogharun, the main crossing point along Iran's 900-km-plus border with Afghanistan. As for UNHCR's current capacity, Nouri said if the numbers increased, there remained the flexibility of opening additional border crossing points. Earlier plans to use the Milak border crossing in Iran's southeast Sistan-Baluchistan Province were suspended due to tension inside Afghanistan's southwestern Nimruz Province. "The safety and security of the returnee is of paramount importance to us," Nouri stressed, adding that they were advising people there either to postpone their return or to travel via Dogharun instead. Regarding the unique difference between the Afghan refugee population in Iran and that of Pakistan, Nouri noted that almost 96 percent of all Afghans in Iran - some 2.3 million - lived outside refugee camps. There are officially 29 refugee camps in Iran today, the largest being Torbat-e Jam in Iran's northeastern Khorasan Province - home to over 7,000 Afghans refugees. Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers is about to arrive in Pakistan from Afghanistan. During a meeting with the head of the Afghan Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai, in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday, Lubbers emphasised the importance of reintegration of the hundreds of thousands of Afghans returning home. "Security is indispensable to repatriation, but more importantly, successful reintegration will lead to stability," he said. As for the current rate of returns, Lubbers expected this year's target figure of 400,000 returns from Pakistan would probably be reached this summer, while repatriation from Iran, would probably increase substantially after a slow start. "Many of the Afghans have found jobs in Iran, so they will take more time to make their decision before going home. I have the impression that you will see the phenomenon of the man going back first to inspect how it is before letting the family come back," he said. On Wednesday, Lubbers was scheduled to arrive in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad where he would visit a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) at Hesar Shahi and the UNHCR encashment centre at Mohmandara, where transportation expenses to returnees from Pakistan are being provided. After further meetings with government officials and a tour of refugee facilities in Peshawar, he will travel to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for more talks on Friday. His eight-day mission to the region - his third since taking office in January 2001 - included stops in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and will end on Saturday.