IRIN
PAKISTAN: Over 2.2 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan - UNHCR
30 August 2004


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

ISLAMABAD, 30 August (IRIN) - More than 2.2 million Afghans have returned 
home so far from Pakistan since the voluntary repatriation programme of 
the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 
started in 2002, an official of the agency told IRIN in the capital, 
Islamabad, on Monday.

"Over 300,000 Afghans have returned to their homeland since the UNHCR 
voluntary repatriation programme resumed in March this year," Jack Redden, 
the spokesman for UNHCR in Pakistan, said.

All the Afghans living in Pakistan wishing to return can avail themselves 
of UNHCR assistance, consisting of a travel grant ranging from 3 to US 
$30, plus additional grants to help with re-integration in Afghanistan.

The UN refugee agency currently operates six departure centres and four 
Iris Verification Centres (IVCs) in four cities across Pakistan. The IVCs 
check the identity of refugees and help to reduce fraud. Since March, a 
total of 184,000 Afghans who passed through these centres were living 
outside established refugee camps, while 135,000 came from such camps, the 
agency said.

Some 173,000 repatriated Afghans passed through the Peshawar departure 
centre in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) which has two IVC 
facilities. Another 83,000 refugees were processed through two departure 
centres at Quetta in the southwestern province of Balochistan. While 
33,000 passed through two centres located in the southern port city of 
Karachi in the province of Sindh, around 30,000 were processed in 
Islamabad.

Under the voluntary repatriation programme of the UNHCR, nearly 1.6 
million refugees returned in 2002 following the fall of the Taliban 
regime, while only 340,000 repatriated during 2003. With 300,000 returnees 
having departed from Pakistan this year, the refugee agency estimated that 
over a million refugees were still residing in camps in Pakistan. However, 
in the absence of any comprehensive census, there is no specific figure 
for the number of refugees living in urban settlements throughout 
Pakistan.

The UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan operates under a 
special tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the governments of 
Afghanistan and Pakistan, which will run until March 2006. According to an 
agency statement, more than 292,000 Afghans have received their 
repatriation assistance from UNHCR centres inside Afghanistan.


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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