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)
04 March 2002


AFGHANISTAN: Iran to close Mahkaki and Mile-46 camps

ISLAMABAD, 4 March (IRIN) - Iranian officials confirmed to IRIN on Monday
plans to close two camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside
Afghanistan. Established after 11 September, and home to more than 10,000
Afghan IDPs, the Mahkaki and Mile-46 camps in southwestern Nimruz
Province, are administered by the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

"As per our plans for repatriation in April, we will begin the process of
closing these two camps during the repatriation process," the
international affairs officer for the Iranian Bureau for Foreigners and
Illegal Aliens (BAFIA), Rostam-Ali Rostami, said from the Iranian capital,
Tehran. In coordination with the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), BAFIA hopes to repatriate some 400,000
Afghan refugees this year alone.

Asked how the operation would proceed, Rostami said the closure would not
be done immediately, but under an incremental process, in coordination
with nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) working in the area. With
reconstruction already beginning inside the country, and most of the
people at the camps being farmers, they should return to their homes and
fields, he said.

The move was pragmatic, Bruno Jochum, the head of mission of the
international NGO Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), told IRIN from Tehran.
"Given the harsh climatic conditions - particularly sandstorms - closing
these two camps is a wise decision." He added that the question now was
the methodology to be applied. "We are advocating that UNHCR play a more
active role in assisting the return of these people to their places of
origin," he said.

Jochum went on to call on UNHCR to offer the same assistance package to
the IDPs at Mahkaki and Mile-46 as it would be offering the refugees to be
repatriated from Iran. In this respect, according to a recent MSF survey
of Mahkaki residents, 15 to 20 percent were found to be vulnerable and
therefore in need of protection and special assistance - something UNHCR
could greatly assist with, he added.

Meanwhile, UNHCR in Tehran told IRIN that almost 35,000 Afghan refugees
had spontaneously (unassisted) gone home since the beginning of this year,
most of them through the main border-crossing point at Dogharun. Tajiks
represented the largest ethnic group among returning Afghans, followed by
Hazaras, Pashtuns and Uzbeks.

Almost 63 percent of this year's spontaneously repatriated Afghans have
returned from Tehran the capital, followed by the northeastern city of
Mashhad, Esfahan in central Iran, Shiraz in the southwest and Kerman in
the southeast. Most of the returnees were heading for the western city of
Herat, followed by Kabul, Ghazni, Balkh and Faryab provinces.

According to a UNHCR survey in Mashhad, the vast majority of Afghans in
Iran cite security, stability and employment opportunities - with a clear
emphasis on "more security" - as the motivating factors affecting their
decision in regard to permanent repatriation. Drought, human rights
abuses, food shortages, health and education concerns were also voiced.

Other Afghans, however, specify reconciliation and national unity as the
key elements for the future of Afghanistan, establishment of which, in
their opinion, could also bring security to their war-torn country.

The United Nations maintains there are over two million Afghan refugees in
Iran today. Fearing a major new influx after 11 September, Tehran sealed
its border with Afghanistan, and proposed establishing a series of IDP
camps inside Afghan territory where assistance would be provided instead.
Mahkaki and Mile-46, just inside the border, were the only such camps to
open.


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