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'Recycled' refugees reflect Afghanistan's instability

by Christopher Nadeem

Peshawar (IPS) - An Afghan refugee tried to set himself ablaze at a refugee repatriation centre in Pakistan's capital city Islamabad earlier this month, supposedly after his appeal for assistance to return home was rejected as fraudulent because he had already been given aid. The incident reflects not just the desperation some refugees feel to return to their homeland, but a growing problem in the voluntary repatriation process under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Ensuring that assistance packages go to genuine returnees has been a Herculean task since March, when the seasonal repatriation process got underway, UNHCR staff members admit. In a sense, these problems came with the success of the repatriation process, which U.N. officials say peaked in April to June in what they claim to be the fastest voluntary refugee influx in the history of mankind. By end-July, over a million refugees had returned from neighbouring countries, the bulk from Pakistan.

But this exodus brought other problems as well. As of Jul. 25, repatriation staff say they have rejected 53,592 families throughout Pakistan that they suspected of making bogus claims. Official sources also estimate that some 230,000 'recycled refugees' - who have benefited from U.N. repatriation packages and went to Afghanistan, some with the hope of getting second payments - have returned to Pakistan illegally, to disappear in rural and urban areas of the country.

But beyond just being a bureaucratic problem, this trend highlights the difficulty of life in Afghanistan, which prompts refugees who have returned to their homeland - and have received U.N. assistance - to head back again to neighbouring Pakistan. "Life is difficult in Kabul. Everybody is going to Kabul and there are no houses,'' says Mohammad Khalid, an Afghan who runs an auto spare parts business here in Peshawar.

''It will take some time before stability comes there. Things will improve when people start moving to other urban centres of Afghanistan," he adds. Khalid had himself returned to Kabul - though not through the U.N. process - to explore the possibilities of setting up business there.

His hopes for a normal life were buoyed by the Loya Jirga (a traditional decision-making assembly) meeting in June that affirmed the rule of the interim government, but he lasted all of two weeks in his own country. As many Afghans realise that returning home is not a simple task - its infrastructure is far from ready to receive all of its refugees back - the number of returnees has started to decrease.

The refugee agency closed down one of three repatriation centres in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the capital of which is Peshawar, and reduced the working time of others. But rather than signify a return to stability for tens of thousands of families scattered across the region and a lessening of the refugee burden for Pakistan, the slowing of the repatriation effort is a worrying trend, say refugee relief workers and Pakistan officials. The return of refugees stretched the public infrastructure in Kabul, and demand for housing, food, basic services, education and jobs grew. Disillusionment came in and many returnees began to flow out again, many heading across the Khyber Pass into Peshawar.. Increasingly, it is clear that the only way returning refugees will stay on in Afghanistan is if reconstruction picks up - and spreads beyond Kabul.

Many Afghans in Peshawar, apart from having acquired property, are increasingly hesitant to go back because of reports of clashes among warlords and violent incidents like the assassination of key officials.

(Inter Press Service)

 

HNB-Pathum Udanaya2002

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