Afghan refugees: Incentives fail to expedite repatriation of Afghans

Despite offering incentives, repatriation process of Afghan refugees is going with slow pace as around 41,000 individuals of total 1.7 million registered Afghans have returned to their country under the UNHCR’s facilitated voluntary repatriation programme so far this year. However, UNHCR spokesperson Duniya Aslam Khan said that last year total 35,000 refugees had returned in the same period. She said that there were multiple factors owing to which refugees did not want to go back to their country. Security situation and tribal feuds were major factors, she said. The UN agency said in a press release issued here Wednesday that of the total returned Afghans from Pakistan this year, 23,664 refugees went back from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8,578 from Balochistan, 2,883 from Sindh and 5,916 from Punjab, including Islamabad. Nearly one third of these refugees have returned to their homes in northern Afghanistan, particularly the provinces of Baghlan, Jowzjan, Balkh and Takhar. About 26 per cent of the repatriated Afghans went to the eastern provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman. There were also a significant number of Afghans returning to Ghazni, Kabul, Logar and Parwan provinces in central Afghanistan. To facilitate return of Afghan refugees, UNHCR operates three voluntary repatriation centres in Pakistan with two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The press release said that UNHCR was also helping communities in Pakistan that hosted large numbers of refugees. The UN agency said that 3.7 Afghans had returned from Pakistan since 2002. “Refugees Affected and Housing Areas (RAHA) was designed to enable the local communities, which have hosted refugees, to benefit from the support to ensure that the extra burden on social services and utilities does not result in a lower standard of living for the residents of those villages and towns that have so generously welcomed Afghan refugees,” it said. The spokesperson said that the UN agency was taking certain steps to expedite voluntary repatriation process from Pakistan. She said that it had been decided that return programme would not suspended in the upcoming winter and would continue throughout the year.