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UNHCR Report: More Than One Million Afghan Refugees Have Returned
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Afghan refugee with her child
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GENEVA,
June 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - More than one million
Afghan refugees have returned to the country, the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ruud Lubbers said late Monday, June
17, urging the international community to provide funds to help the
return work.
"We've
surpassed the one million mark and now expect that up to two million
Afghans could return home this year," Lubbers said.
“Fresh contributions of funds and food aid are urgently needed. The
new government of President Karzai urgently needs international
support.
"The Afghan people require a smooth and rapid transition from
relief to development to ensure they have jobs and don't find
themselves in deeper poverty," he said.
The UNHCR said that the largest number of returnees -- 920,000 -- came
from Pakistan, with 75,000 from Iran in an operation that began in
April and another 9,000 from Central Asia.
Lubbers warned that the returnees were not receiving the international
support they needed to ensure their return would be sustainable.
When the Afghan authorities and UNHCR started the assisted return
effort March 1, they planned for 800,000 refugees to repatriate from
outside the country, and for another 400,000 internally displaced
people to be transported back to their home villages inside
Afghanistan, the UNHCR said on its website.
But the current pace of return has exceeded the expectations of relief
agencies. The refugees' enthusiasm to go back has created a new danger
that Afghanistan could slip backwards unless relief agencies
immediately receive needed funds to help Afghans rebuild their
homeland. Afghanistan has been suffering from grinding poverty,
widespread drought and the effects of decades of war.
UNHCR still requires more than $86 million dollars for its $271
million aid operation in Afghanistan and in neighboring states hosting
the world's largest refugee group.
The Kabul-based head of UNHCR's Afghan operations, Filippo Grandi,
told reporters at the Pul-i-Charkhi returnee center Sunday, June 18
that if larger reconstruction programs do not begin quickly in
Afghanistan, the returns could be in jeopardy.
The Afghans' return has already surpassed the massive repatriation to
Kosovo of mid-1999, and should soon pass the return of 1.5 million
Iraqi Kurds in 1991, said UNHCR.
In Pakistan, long-established Afghans in distant urban areas like
Karachi and Rawalpindi are joining those living in refugee settlements
along the country's north-western frontier in a voluntary return
movement in which the refugees themselves hire their transport.
Afghans going back under the UNHCR/Afghan government initiative get a
family kit containing various items like blankets, plastic tarpaulins,
buckets, tools and other supplies. In some areas, the U.N. refugee
agency has been forced to substitute items due to shortages. A lack of
funds also means that UNHCR has had to cut back on its shelter kits,
which it hopes to distribute to up to 96,000 families this year to
help them rebuild their homes.
The U.N. World Food Program, which provides returnees with a
three-month supply of wheat flour, has run dangerously low of
supplies. Many returnees only receive 50 kilograms of flour, a third
of the planned ration, while people returning to southern Afghanistan
currently get nothing. Families that don't get food receive vouchers
so they may collect supplies later, the agency said.
On
Monday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that Iran's southeastern
Milak border post will reopen within a week, after being shut down
since the start of June due to "tensions" in neighboring
Afghanistan.
The United Nations hopes to send "a convoy [of refugees] via
Milak this coming week," said UNHCR spokeswoman Laura O'Mahony.
The closure of Milak, which lies 10 kilometers (six miles) from
Zarandj, capital of the Afghan province of Nimrouz, has left only the
Dogharoun post to the north open for refugees to return home from
Iran.
Meanwhile, the European Commission said Monday it would release 9.25
million euros (8.7 million dollars) in aid to help Afghan refugees
return home from neighboring countries, reported AFP.
The money will be used to provide them with transport, food and basic
supplies, and should also go towards training teachers, providing
shelter and medical care, the Commission said.
The European Community Humanitarian Office will manage the funds,
working with partners such as the U.N. High Commission for Refugees
and the International Organization for Migration, the European
Commission said.
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