IRIN
PAKISTAN: Afghan voluntary repatriation starts anew
2 March 2006


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United 
Nations]

ISLAMABAD, 2 March (IRIN) - After a winter break of three months, the 
office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on 
Wednesday resumed its voluntary repatriation assistance programme for 
Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The programme is now in its last operational year under the exiting 
tripartite agreement between Islamabad, Kabul and UNHCR that expires in 
December 2006.

"The start of the repatriation season is slow, as some 15 Afghan 
families comprising about 75 individuals have left Pakistan over the 
last two days, including five families that returned on Wednesday. But 
this is quite usual," Vivian Tan, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said in the 
Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Thursday.

In 2002 the UN refugee agency launched its voluntary repatriation 
assistance programme from Pakistan and Iran following the collapse of 
the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

According to UNHCR, over 2.7 million Afghan refugees have returned from 
Pakistan since the start of the repatriation programme. More than 
440,000 Afghans returned in 2005. A significant number also cross into 
Afghanistan without UNHCR assistance, but there are no records of the 
number of spontaneous repatriations.

In February, Islamabad announced it would close three large Afghan 
refugee settlements, including two in southern Balochistan province and 
one in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), giving the residents the 
option of repatriation through UNHCR's programmes or relocation to other 
camps before the end of April.

The UN refugee agency expects about 400,000 Afghans to return home in 
2006. For those Afghans left in Pakistan beyond 2006, future 
arrangements are still under discussion with the governments involved, 
according to UNHCR.


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