IRIN
PAKISTAN: Proposal to close all Afghan refugee camps within three years
30 May 2006


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

ISLAMABAD, 30 May (IRIN) - The Pakistani government has proposed a 
three-year plan to gradually close all Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan 
at a meeting on Tuesday on the future of Afghan refugees in Pakistan 
held in the Qatari capital Doha.

Some of the camps are a quarter of a century old and still house many 
who fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Participating were representatives of the governments of Afghanistan, 
Pakistan and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees (UNHCR) - a group that governs the voluntary repatriation 
programme of Afghan refugees from Pakistan.

"We have prepared a strategy to close all [Afghan refugee] camps 
gradually over the next three years, which has been shared in today's 
meeting with UNHCR and Afghan officials in Doha," Fehmina Taufeeq, 
deputy director of the ministry dealing with refugees, said in the 
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday.

"While staying committed to the principle of voluntary repatriation, we 
want to stress to the Afghan government, as well as to the international 
community, the need to provide a conducive environment inside 
Afghanistan to facilitate the return of Afghan nationals back to their 
homeland," she added.

Some 60,000 Afghan refugees have returned so far this year since March 
under the voluntary repatriation assistance programme operated by UNHCR. 
While significant, this is just more than half the number that returned 
to Afghanistan in the same period in 2005.

The UN refugee agency has assisted some 2.7 million Afghan to return 
from Pakistan since the programme started in 2002.

Pakistan still hosts well over 2.6 million Afghans, including more than 
1 million living in 70 UNHCR-administered camps mainly located in North 
West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan province.


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