Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 17:18:16 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: PAKISTAN: Planned Afghan repatriation raises serious concerns
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PAKISTAN: Planned Afghan repatriation raises serious concerns

ISLAMABAD, 28 March (IRIN) - Thousands of unregistered Afghan refugees who
have arrived in Pakistan since September last year are at risk of being
deported in the coming months, a senior provincial government official
told IRIN on Tuesday. 

Aid workers maintain that the strategy could place many refugees currently
in camps near Peshawar, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP),
at serious risk of persecution by the Taliban Islamic Movement in
Afghanistan. 

NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah told IRIN that Afghans who had
arrived since September were suffering from economic hardship and were not
considered to be genuine refugees. 

"As I told the UN Secretary-General [Kofi Annan] when he visited two weeks
ago, we are prepared to let them stay for a couple of months ... But,
ultimately, they have to go back," Shah said. 

The governor said that all recent arrivals who had not been formally
registered as refugees would be returned, but that those who had been in
Pakistan for over two years would be exempt. Such a policy would directly
affect 80,000 refugees currently living in the makeshift Jalozai
settlement, as well as any future Afghans fleeing to Pakistan.

Governor Shah said that Pakistan faced its own problems with the Central
Asian drought, and could not sustain any more Afghans in the area. He was
particularly concerned that Pakistan could see a further influx of
refugees from the conflict-affected north of Afghanistan because the Tajik
and Uzbek borders remained closed to them.

He dismissed the notion that returning Afghans would be exposed to any
risk or harassment at the hands of the Taliban authorities. "There is no
persecution in Afghanistan for these people; this is merely propaganda,"
he said. 

However, humanitarian workers maintain that the policy of involuntary
return of Afghan refugees is based on serious misconceptions relating to
the refugee population and current conditions inside Afghanistan. 

A World Food Programme (WFP) survey in February indicated that two-thirds
of the recent arrivals in Shamshatoo and Akora Khattak refugee camps in
northwest Pakistan were of Tajik or Uzbek origin. A significant majority,
90 percent of those interviewed, cited that fighting was a major reason
for their leaving their homes.

Sigurd Hanson, head of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in
Peshawar, told IRIN there was not simply one approach in dealing with the
Afghan refugee population in Pakistan. He said that the refugee groups
were extremely varied and there were numerous reasons as to why many would
not wish to return.

"While a number would not face persecution, many others would be at
serious risk for reasons of gender, ethnicity or politics. These groups
should not be sent back," he said.

Large numbers of Afghans could face persecution if forced to return
because the local authorities and relief agencies do not have the
screening mechanisms to filter out those most at risk from persecution,
according to Hanson. 

"Proper screening would have to be set up in the event of a return of
refugees," he said. "At present, UNHCR and the Pakistani authorities do
not have this capacity and would require the cooperation of NGOs." 

[ENDS]

IRIN-Asia Phone:- +92-51-2211451 Ext 484 , Mobile +92-0300-8501-307, Fax
No:- +92-51-2211450 or 475 E-mail: irinasia@irin.org.pk


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