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Pakistan & UNHCR Collaborate To Repatriate Half Million Afghan Refugees
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| Will Afghan refugees return home soon? |
By Aamir Lathif
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 29 (Islam Online) - Pakistan and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will jointly carry out the repatriation of some 500,000 Afghan refugees from Pakistan to their war-ravaged homeland during spring.
"UNHCR is gearing up to assist a total of one million Afghans to return home from the neighboring countries in March, April this year. Half of the estimated numbers are expected to return from Pakistan," said Hasim Utkan, UNHCR's representative in Pakistan, at a news briefing on Tuesday.
Local analysts, however, are skeptical about the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland in current circumstances. "The prevailing uncertainty in Afghanistan is the major barricade in the repatriation of Afghan refugees. In fact, more refugees are lined up at Chaman and Torkum borders to enter Pakistan due to deteriorating law and order situation in Afghanistan", said Dr. Shamim Akhtar, the former Chairman of International Relations Department, University of Karachi.
"Unless the rule of law, which was immaculate during the Taliban regime, is restored, Afghan refugees could be forced to leave Pakistan, otherwise they will choose to stay here", he added. In the long term, Hasim said, "repatriation is the most sustainable solution to the Afghan refugee problem adding Afghan refugees would keen to participate in the reconstruction of their country".
Appreciating the support from the government of Pakistan during the Afghan crisis, he said that Pakistan has been exceptionally generous during the crisis and opened its doors for miserable Afghans.
Giving the details about the relocation of refugees from old camps to newer ones, he said "the refugee agency has shifted 151,000 people to the new better equipped camps in both NWFP and Baluchistan."
"More than 43,000 have been transferred from Jalozai camp to Kotkai, Shalman, Basu, and Old Baghzai camps, situated in tribal areas while some 50,000 from Chaman border and 42,000 others from Quetta were shifted to new camps," the U.N. spokesperson, Ariana, briefed the reporters about the conditions inside Afghanistan.
"Situation is returning to normal in Kabul but," she said, "security concern continue to restrict the movements of U.N. personnel outside Kabul City."
Meanwhile, the United Nations is supporting internally displaced people (IDPs) to return to their hometowns, she said. "The United Nations food agency has started distribution of food to vulnerable people in Nangarhar Province. Over 4,500 metric tons of food would be distributed among 1.2 million people in the area," she added. "In Herat," she said, "the agencies would distribute various non-food items among 1,000 families in Ghore, and 4,000 families each in Badghis and Gulran."
The WHO spokesperson, Loretta, at the occasion said that the health agency is supporting the Afghan Ministry of Health to hold a three-day meeting on Sunday, February 3, 2002 to discuss the reconstruction of the war shattered country.
The WHO is providing assistance to 23 clinics in Herat, she said, adding that the agency will set up 6 mobile clinics in the same region. Loretta further said that WHO is assisting Islamabad Police to enhance social services and provide training to health workers to help Afghan refugees living in the camps at the I-10 sector.
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