REFUGEES: Afghan Camps in Pakistan to Close in July

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Pakhtun Sahar - Pajhwok Afghan News*

KABUL, Jun 6 2006 (IPS) - It took a meeting in Qatar’s capital Doha for officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to agree on the future of four Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan.

Over three days this week, the parties worked out the details for the closure of the Katcha Garhi and Jalozai camps in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Girdi Jungle and Jungle Pir Alizai in Balochistan.

While Katcha Garhi on the outskirts of the NWFP capital Peshawar and the two camps in Balochistan will shut by the end of July, Jalozai will be evacuated in 2007. Close to 1.5 million refugees from the four camps will have to either return to Afghanistan or move to new camps.

Pakistan Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind recently announced that the government has finalised a three-year plan for the closure of camps and voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees. The plan is awaiting approval from a cabinet committee.

The camps were bound to shut down. In March, an editorial in ‘The Dawn’ newspaper said: “The truth is that with relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan still frayed, and with growing competition over space and natural resources, it might be time for the refugees to consider moving back to Afghanistan under the UN’s voluntary repatriation plan.”

According to a 2005 census, more than three million Afghans have made Pakistan their home. The majority, 57 percent, lives in NWFP, 25 percent in Balochistan, 7 percent in Punjab, 4 percent in Sindh and the remaining refugees in the Northern Areas and Kashmir.

The refugee influx began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Katcha Garhi and Jalozai, 50 kms east of Peshawar, were established a year later.

At first, tents were the predominant mode of shelter in the two camps. But by 2001, when Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers were ousted from power by U.S.-led coalition forces, Katcha Garhi was an intricate village of attached adobe homes where people had settled to live, not to await their return home.

In 2001, some 75,000 Afghans were crammed into Katcha Garhi and 72,000 in Jalozai. By 2004, with the UNHCR overseeing the repatriation of refugees, numbers in the former had fallen to 50,000. Pakistan has been trying to shut the camps since 2002.

At the Doha meeting, the three sides agreed that voluntary repatriation should remain the preferred solution for the refugees, reintegration assistance should be shifted in areas of return in Afghanistan, and Afghan authorities should include returnee reintegration in their national development plan.

Now, every returnee is offered between 4 dollars and 37 dollars as travel allowance, and 12 dollars as initial assistance.

Those who choose not to go back have the choice of being relocated in 10 camps that have been identified in Dir Upper and Lower, Bannu, Hangu, Kohat and Chitral, but that would mean starting from scratch, UNHCR Spokeswoman Vivian Tan warned.

More than 67,000 refugees have been repatriated from Pakistan since March 2006. An estimated 2.8 million Afghans have returned since the programme began in 2002 while some 2.5 million Afghans continue to live in Pakistan.

In November, Pakistan is hosting the ministerial conference on refugees under the auspices of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). The tripartite commission is scheduled to meet in August this year.

Those Afghan refugees who choose to return could benefit from a new programme to be run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Italian Trade Unions Institute for Development Cooperation (ISCOS) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Funded by the European Union, the Return Facilitation and Communities Support Programme is supposed to benefit more than 146,000 individuals in the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) over 18 months. It will provide information, legal aid and protection via mobile teams and training to empower individuals to make informed decisions about repatriation.

Many Afghan refugees in Pakistan are unable to decide if they should return because they lack information about the security situation and the prospect of jobs in their country. Some are reluctant to move because they do not have land in Afghanistan.

*Released under an agreement with Pajhwok Afghan News.

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