Pakistan to close Afghan refugee camps in tribal region
By Maria A Khan - Pakistan Times Staff Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to shut down all the Afghan refugee camps in the country’s tribal region bordering Afghanistan by August-31, a UN spokesman on Friday said.

“Approximately 105,000 refugees will be sent back to Afghanistan with the closure of all the 32 camps located in the Bajur and Kurrum agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA),” the spokesman for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement issued in Islamabad.

FATA consists of seven semi-autonomous regions, each called an agency. The UNHCR is repatriating the refugees under a three-year tri-partite agreement signed between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR some three years ago.

Security Reasons

The spokesman said that Pakistan’s government cited security reasons for the closure of the remaining camps in FATA, adding the decision was taken at a high level meeting of the UNHCR and Pakistan’s government officials in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday.

Assistance by Japan

“The UNHCR will assist and facilitate Afghans in repatriating to their country,” the spokesman said, adding Afghans will also be informed about special registration procedures aimed to ease the repatriation process.

Meanwhile, Japan has provided 2 million dollars to the UNHCR to support its refugee operations in Pakistan.

“The much needed Japanese financial assistance will help UNHCR continue welfare efforts for refugees in Pakistan,” said Guenet Guebre Christos, UNHCR Country Representative in Pakistan.

In-depth

Japanese has contributed an amount of US 2 million dollars to support the UN Refugee Agency operations in Pakistan.

The contribution was received at the agency's headquarters office in Geneva, says a press release issued here Friday.

A recently held census of Afghans in Pakistan established that there are more than 3 million Afghans in Pakistan. Out of this number around 1.3 million live in 116 refugee camps mostly situated in the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan.

Voluntary Repatriation

UNHCR, in Pakistan, is currently involved in the voluntary repatriation of Afghans, which is the largest voluntary repatriation programme in the world.

It also provides health, primary education, water and sanitation facilities to refugees in camps.

The much needed Japanese financial assistance will help UNHCR in the provision of protection to refugees in Pakistan and will strengthen the efforts to find a durable solution for the people of concern to UNHCR., said Guenet Guebre Christos, UNHCR Country Representative in Pakistan.

A network of 85 Basic Health Units and 375 primary schools are being run by UNHCR in the refugee camps to provide health and primary education to refugee children, she added.

The provision of basic facilities in camps is done through 23 international and national partner organizations and the Government of Pakistan, she said.

As we appreciate the government of Pakistan for hosting millions of Afghans in Pakistan, which has a sizeable number of people of concern to UNHCR; we also highly appreciate donor countries with whose help UNHCR has been able to care for a large number of refugees in Pakistan," she added.

UNHCR Pakistan through its voluntary repatriation programme has assisted more than 2.5 million Afghans in returning home since 2002.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghans is being carried out through a 3 year tri-partite agreement signed between the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR.

During the current year more than 221,000 Afghans have repatriated voluntarily to Afghanistan against an estimated figure for 2005 of 400,000 projected by UNHCR early this year after the resumption of the repatriation programme in March.

UNHCR Pakistan has a budgeted amount of US $ 12 million to carry out its operation in the country for the year 2005.●