IRIN
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Repatriation operation to continue from Pakistan -
   UNHCR
13 September 2004


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

ISLAMABAD, 13 September (IRIN) - The office of the UN High Commissioner 
for Refugees (UNHCR) will continue operating its voluntary repatriation 
assistance programme for Afghan refugees from Pakistan, as the agency 
announced a suspension of operations from Iran via Herat following the 
attack on the UN offices in the western Afghan city of Herat on Sunday.

"The UNHCR operation is continuing from Pakistan. There is no change in 
the operation here. Obviously the situation though is in the state of flux 
at the moment and our main concern is to ensure that everybody is safe in 
Herat," Jack Redden, a spokesman for UNHCR Pakistan, told IRIN in the 
capital, Islamabad, on Monday.

The buildings of the UNHCR and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan 
(UNAMA) were attacked by demonstrators protesting against the sacking by 
Afghan President Hamid Karzai of Ismael Khan, the governor of the western 
Afghan province of Herat.

"The trouble is in the west, while mostly the people [Afghan refugees] are 
moving to eastern parts of Afghanistan from Pakistan," Redden said.

Meanwhile, the UNHCR announced on Monday that it will end its assistance 
on 15 September to four "new" refugee camps in Balochistan located in the 
Chaman area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. The refuge agency had 
stopped all its activities in the nine "new" camps in North West Frontier 
Province (NWFP) on 31 August and two similar camps in Balochistan province 
on 5 September, but announced an extension for four camps offering the 
residents relocation to another camp in Balochistan at Mohammed Kheil.

According to the UN refugee agency, no refugee in the four camps on the 
border at Chaman had accepted the offer to relocate to an alternative 
camp.

Many Afghans in the Chaman camps said that, rather than relocate to a camp 
where basic services are available, they would prefer to stay without the 
UNHCR assistance near the border town where it is easy to find daily 
labouring jobs, the UNHCR press statement said.

The UNHCR had announced earlier this year that the agency would end all 
assistance to "new" camps, established near the Pakistan-Afghan border to 
shelter those fleeing the conflict of late 2001 in Afghanistan. Some 
82,000 out of a total of 190,000 Afghans availed themselves of the UNHCR 
special package for repatriation from "new" camps.

However, the agency will continue to provide water, sanitation, education 
and medical services in nearly 200 "old" camps throughout Pakistan.

The UNHCR statement said that it was difficult and expensive to provide 
services to the Chaman camps, which were located on a barren strip along 
the border with Afghanistan where water had to be supplied by tanker 
trucks. There was also increasing concern about security because of the 
long porous border, the statement said.

The UNHCR's regular repatriation assistance package is available until 
March 2006 to all Afghans wishing to return from Pakistan. The UN refugee 
agency has assisted some 2.25 million Afghans repatriating to their 
homeland, including some 350,000 so far this year.


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


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