By IPS Correspondents
KABUL, Mar 21 2006 (IPS)

For nearly three decades, Afghans poured into neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, fleeing the unending war in their country. Now, Pakistani officials and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Iran are encouraging them to go home.

While the UNHCR said it will assist 150,000 refugees to ‘voluntarily’ return to Afghanistan this year from Iran, Pakistani officials, announced over local radio on Mar 13, that they were shutting down a refugee camp at Miran Shah, in the North Waziristan Agency, within 24 hours.

Bilateral relations between Kabul and Islamabad have nosedived in recent weeks. Hundreds of refugees living in camps like Miran Shah have been caught in a bloody operation launched by Pakistani paramilitary forces to flush out armed militia, suspected to be Taliban.

The refugees have been accused of harbouring the Taliban. The Pakistanis have claimed that 200 ‘miscreants’ have been killed in the ongoing operation.

The political agent of the North Waziristan Agency, Zaheerul Islam, said the refugees must leave or ”action will be taken against them.” ”They are not Afghan refugees but foreigners,” he claimed.

Earlier this month, Pajhwok Afghan News quoting ”(unnamed) media reports in Pakistan” said Pakistan has threatened to fence and mine its long, porous border with Afghanistan to prevent ”foreigners’ infiltration”.

The report said Pakistan’s interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan, while defending the decision, said: ”We are suffering from large-scale poppy cultivation and gun-running in Afghanistan and the Afghan government has no writ in some of its provinces to overcome the situation.”

Members of Afghanistan’s lower house, Wolesi Jirga, have rejected Pakistan’s request to fence its side of the border, and warned that Pakistan would be flouting international laws if it proceeded with the plan without Kabul’s consent.

Afghanistan does not recognise the Durand Line as its international border with Pakistan. The line was drawn in 1893 by the British, under a treaty signed with the then Afghan ruler, for 100 years. But Kabul has refused to renew the treaty since it expired in 1993.

Earlier this month, Afghan refugees were virtually locked into camps on Mar. 4 and 5 as Pakistan tightened security across the country for the visit of United States President George W. Bush.

Some 140 refugees who violated prohibitory orders were arrested from several bazaars in Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The security forces said the detentions were made to prevent Afghan refugees from participating in widespread protests threatened by the right-wing Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal during the Bush visit.

Last month, hundreds of Afghan refugees were held for taking part in demonstrations against the publication of blasphemous cartoons in a Danish newspaper. Several people were killed during protests that turned violent in Afghanistan.

Refugees commuting between Pakistan’s border and Peshawar have to change vehicles four times and walk on foot for two hours to cross from Torkham to Jamrud. Often paramilitary personnel do not allow them to proceed to Peshawar.

Pakistan wants all its Afghan refugees go home. In February, Islamabad announced closure of three refugee camps in the NWFP and its restive Balochistan province by the end of April. While the Kacha Garhi camp in Peshawar shelters 51,000 people, the two other camps in Balochistan house a total of 78,000 refugees. The refugees have been told that they should either repatriate or relocate to other camps.

The ‘voluntary’ repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan has been under UNHCR supervision since 2002. Some 3.5 million Afghans have returned home, mainly from Pakistan and Iran.

The returnee numbers have decreased over the years. In 2002, the refugee agency in Iran assisted 260,000 to return. In 2003, the numbers had fallen to 142,000. Last year, only 64,000 had registered for repatriation. According to the Iranian government, some 900,000 Afghans still live in the country.

Returnees have to register at one of 10 voluntary repatriation centres (VRCs) located throughout Iran, including the cities of Mashhad, Qom, Esfahan, Kerman, Shiraz, Yazd, Zahedan, and Tehran. In Iran, they are provided with an assistance package, including a small monetary grant to facilitate their return.

”The (greater) challenge is to ensure that the international community remains focused on the need for continued support for Afghan refugees who decide to return voluntarily and for those who remain in the host countries. It is equally essential that the host countries in the region receive continued support for maintaining the refugees pending their return,” UNHCR country representative Sten Bronee said in Tehran.

The refugee repatriation programme is under a tripartite agreement between Islamabad, Kabul and the UNHCR that expires in December 2006.

The repatriation, which resumed this month after a three-month winter break, is slow, said Vivian Tan, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Islamabad on Mar 3. ”But this is quite usual,” she added. “Some 15 Afghan families comprising about 75 individuals have left Pakistan over the last two days.”

The UN refugee agency expects about 400,000 Afghans to return home in 2006. For those Afghans left in Pakistan and Iran beyond 2006, future arrangements are still under discussion with the governments involved, according to UNHCR.

(*Released under arrangement with Pajhwok Afghan News)

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