IRIN
PAKISTAN: UNHCR ends assistance to "new" refugee camps
6 September 2004


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

PESHAWAR, 6 September (IRIN) - The office of the UN High Commissioner for 
Refugees (UNHCR) has completed processing the last of some 82,000 Afghan 
refugees wishing to repatriate from "new" camps in Pakistan located near 
the Afghan border, where the agency has ended its assistance, the refuge 
agency announced on Monday.

The UN agency and the government of Pakistan had announced in July that 
all assistance in the 15 "new" camps housing around 190,000 Afghans would 
end on 1 September due to increasing security concerns because of unrest 
in neighbouring areas of Afghanistan.

UNHCR had completed processing refugees from nine "new" camps in North 
West Frontier Province (NWFP) on 31 August but announced a five-day 
extension for registering those leaving six similar camps in Balochistan 
province because of delays in the programme.

"More than 39,000 out of 65,000 refugees listed in 'new' camps in NWFP 
[have been processed] while 43,000 from a total of 127,000 Afghans have 
repatriated from Balochistan, availing [themselves of] the special 
assistance package of the UNHCR," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told 
IRIN in the capital, Islamabad.

In addition to receiving a three-month food supply on arrival in 
Afghanistan, families repatriating from these camps will receive non-food 
benefits including a tent and other items.

"The [new] camps were mainly located in remote areas where it was 
difficult and expensive to provide assistance," Redden said.

The UNHCR has ceased all services in the "new" camps, including food 
distribution, this having been discontinued in "old" camps in 1995. 
However, support in the form of medical care, education, water and 
sanitation will continue in nearly 200 "old" camps across Pakistan which 
hold about a million residents, other than those have taken the option to 
relocate from the "new" ones.

"We are satisfied with the number who took this package, but remember, 
it's a voluntary programme and it's up to the refugees themselves as to 
whether or not they want to go back and avail [themselves of] this 
package," Redden said.

The UNHCR has assisted nearly 2.25 million Afghans to return to their 
homeland since the voluntary repatriation programme started in March 2002, 
with 340,000 returning so far this year. The agency expects about 400,000 
to 500,000 Afghan refugees to return from Pakistan this year.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees is governed by a tripartite 
accord between the UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan 
that runs until March 2006.


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


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