DATE=7/28/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=AFGHAN REPATRIATION (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-264895
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-
C-R, says more than 57-thousand Afghan refugees
have returned home from Iran since the agency and
the Iranian government began a voluntary
repatriation program in early April. Lisa
Schlein reports from Geneva.
TEXT: The United Nations refugee agency says
three convoys a week leave Iran for Afghanistan.
Last week, it reports more than 46-hundred
Afghans returned home voluntarily.
Dephine Marie of the U-N-H-C-R says most of the
Afghan refugees return to one of three cities:
Herat, Kabul, or Ghazni. She acknowledges that
fighting and instability exist in some parts of
Afghanistan, but says the places to which the
refugees return are considered safe.
/// MARIE ACT ///
U-N-H-C-R policy has always been to
repatriate people only to safe areas in the
country of origin. So, there's been an
assessment of the areas and they are not
affected either by fighting or by drought
because it would also be a mistake to take
these people back to drought-affected
areas. They can't survive there, or they
become internally displaced, or they go
again to another country.
///END ACT///
The U-N-H-C-R provides every Afghan returnee with
food and agricultural tools to help them restart
their lives back home.
The agency runs six screening centers where
refugees fearing to go home can claim asylum.
Ms. Marie says interview teams composed of one
government representative and one from the U-N
agency examine the cases asking for protection.
She says the number of people who do not want to
return to Afghanistan is quite high. She says
46-thousand individuals, who represent more than
nine-thousand family cases, have been screened.
/// MARIE SECOND ACT ///
They usually claimed that they have well-
founded fear that they would be persecuted
or be faced with more fighting or
persecution in their country when they
return. So, in this case obviously the
return is not operated against their will.
///END ACT///
/// opt /// She says more than 31-hundred cases
have been accepted for asylum, nearly 39-hundred
cases have been rejected and close to 33-hundred
cases are pending. /// end opt /// Ms. Marie
says people who have been refused, can appeal.
Iran is hosting an estimated one-point-three
million Afghans. A majority have been there for
20 years. (Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/PW
28-Jul-2000 11:59 AM EDT (28-Jul-2000 1559 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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