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Afghan repatriation from Pakistan passes 1.9 million

IRNA

Islamabad, Oct 28, IRNA -- The number of Afghan refugees that UN 
Refugee Agency in Pakistan has helped return home since it began a 
voluntary repatriation program in March 2002 passed the 1.9 million 
mark on Tuesday, said a UNHCR press release. 
The program, which continues until 2005, provides each refugee who
is verified at the centers in Pakistan with a travel grant, food and 
various other items such as shelter material on arrival at the 
destination in Afghanistan. 
The voluntary repatriation program has been guided this year by a 
tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Pakistan and
Afghanistan that established the principle of a gradual, sustainable 
return of refugees, the press release added. 
Last week, 5,196 Afghan refugees went through verification centers
in Pakistan and left for home. Several hundred refugees were assisted 
on Tuesday, pushing the two-year total past 1.9 million, according to 
UNHCR. 
The number returning to Afghanistan has slowed with the approach 
of winter, but there is still reportedly a steady flow. 
UNHCR will continue to offer repatriation assistance to those 
needing help in the coming months, said the press release. 
Returns accelerate with the arrival of spring in March. 
Figures on returns reported in Afghanistan are compiled after 
refugees receive their assistance, so the totals there lag the 
departures from Pakistan. 
Afghan refugees had arrived in waves over the years since the 
first crossed the borders of Pakistan and Iran at the time of growing 
internal unrest and the Soviet invasion in 1979. 
But the removal of the Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001 
triggered an overwhelming return movement. 
In addition to the returns from Pakistan, 599,393 have returned 
from Iran since the start of the program -- 389,349 assisted by UNHCR 
and 210,0 44 returning on their own. 
That puts returns from the two neighboring countries since the 
program began on March 1, 2002 at 2.5 million. 
UNHCR estimates there are now about 1.1 million Afghans still in 
refugee camps in Pakistan, plus an unknown but substantial number in 
the country`s urban areas. 
Iran hosts 1.8 million Afghans, not all of them refugees. 
While refugees will continue to return home, especially as 
economic opportunities increase in Afghanistan, there are likely be 
significant numbers of Afghans still in Pakistan after 2005. 
Under the tripartite agreement, the present voluntary repatriation
program ends in 2005. UNHCR and the Government of Pakistan are already
discussing what will follow the current agreement. 
/TK/AH/210 
End