U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
AFGHANISTAN: Refugees returning from Iran
19 December 2001


ISLAMABAD, 19 December (IRIN) - The office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expects a surge in the spontaneous
return of Afghans from Iran in the coming weeks, following a significant
number returning this month, a UNHCR official said on Wednesday.

A UNHCR spokesman, Muhammad Nuri, told IRIN from the Iranian capital,
Tehran, that he expected an increase in the number of Afghans returning
from Iran in the next few weeks, but could not say whether the security
conditions were conducive to those wishing to go home.

Another UNHCR spokesman, Peter Kessler, told a news conference in Geneva
that more than 33,000 Afghans had spontaneously gone home since the
western city of Herat fell to anti-Taliban forces on 12 November.

"From January, on a weekly basis, we had 4,000 refugees returning from
Iran," Nuri said. "As soon as the [US-led] military campaign started [on 7
October], the number dropped to half, about 2,000 people every week," Nuri
added.

However, since 12 November, when the Taliban were routed from the historic
city of Herat, the refugees in Iran started going home in large numbers,
touching a peak of 7,600 people last week, and bringing the total number
of Afghan refugees back from Iran in 2001 to 130,000.

However, due to holidays marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, held
at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, the number of people returning
to Afghanistan had considerably dropped. The return was expected to pick
up once again after Eid holidays were over.

These Afghan refugees, who initially fled from factional fighting and the
worst drought in 30 years in Afghanistan, have been returning to their
country without UNHCR assistance.

Nuri said these refugees were going back through a spontaneous return
scheme organised by the Iranian authorities, under which they had to pay
travelling costs, but were facilitated at the border, including help at
the customs with their personal belongings.

In 2000 some 50,000 refugees returned to Afghanistan under the spontaneous
return scheme, and another 133,000 returned under a UNHCR voluntary
repatriation scheme. UNHCR provided those returning under its scheme with
a US $40 cash allowance per person up to a maximum of six people in a
family, a blanket each and a tarpaulin tent. In the middle of the
programme in 2000, the cash allowance was cut by half to $20 per person
because of cash shortages, and to discourage Afghans from returning to
Iran and claiming the cash allowance once again, Nuri added.

"In 2001, the voluntary repatriation programme was over, but refugees'
spontaneous return continued... We cannot stop people from returning,"
Nuri said, adding that UNHCR did not favour a random return of people. "We
still think that the situation in Afghanistan is not conducive enough for
a mass return of refugees."

The situation in Afghanistan is far from stable even after the stunning
collapse of the hardline Taliban.

An interim administration is set to take power in the country on 22
December for a period of six months, but most of the international aid
workers are waiting for things to stabilise and working environment to be
secure before going inside Afghanistan.

The UNHCR plans to reactivate the voluntary repatriation scheme from Iran
later in the spring, but its officials say that will depend entirely on
the security situation inside the country. "The safety of the refugees is
our key mandate," Nuri said.


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


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