29 February 2004	Sunday	08 Muharram 1425

PESHAWAR, Feb 28: The massive repatriation programme started by the UNHCR in early 2002 for the Afghan refugees has been a failure, said a report filed by the UN Mission.

Most Afghans are not willing to go back to their country, citing lack of economic activities and security there, the report adds.

In early 2000, the refugee agency had registered 1.56 million returnees from Pakistan, of which only 341,732 had gone so far, said the report.

"Owing to insufficient conditions for resettlement in Afghanistan, this was a dubious success, and 'arguably, in the interests neither of the majority of its intended beneficiaries nor of the long-term reconstruction of Afghanistan," says the report.

In assisting a mass return of refugees to Afghanistan in 2002, UNHCR was responding more to the perceived political interests of its donors and host governments, than to the actual interests of the majority of its "beneficiaries", it notes.

It says the repatriation process of the UNHCR also had its hitches, including an 'unknown number of "recyclers"; seasonal migrants and an unquantifiable "backflow". The latter is substantiated by anecdotal evidence: a razed refugee slum in Peshawar has recently been re-inhabited by the Afghan refugees.

According to the report, most returnees who took advantage of the recent repatriation exercise came from urban areas - less than 10 per cent of the camp populations have returned - who had difficulties in making ends meet.

Likewise, they would have been most likely to put their trust in the "encouraging messages" they were receiving from the international community regarding the establishment of peace in their embattled country.

Many who repatriated were refugees from the year 2000 fighting and drought in central and northern Afghanistan (where security has recently improved), or were part of the urban populations that either fled the 1992-1995 fighting in Kabul or, between 1996 and 2000, from the Taliban.

The camp dwellers, however, remained in the camps, comparing the conditions there favourably with Afghanistan.

An overwhelming number of the remaining refugees come from the bordering eastern and southern provinces, where 'there is no development, reconstruction or rehabilitation work taking place at the moment, due to security concerns.

These refugees are not liable to return until there are significant improvements in Afghanistan or in the unlikely event of forced repatriation.

The 'party line' given by refugee village elders is that they cannot return because of 'lack of security': harassment by Kabul government because they are suspected to be Taliban/Al-Qaeda members, or because they are fearful of being at the mercy of warlords.

Others will not return as long as Afghanistan remains in US occupation, adds the report released in January.

Refugee women, however, possibly with more honesty, mention economic factors: 'we can survive here, but not in Afghanistan' as one poor widow in a camp-like settlement put it.

Nevertheless, in spite of all the words spoken by refugees about the impossibility of return in the current circumstances, focus group interviews discovered that many male refugees are travelling backwards and forwards to Afghanistan on a regular basis - some as often as monthly or twice monthly.

While some may have legitimate 'ethnically based fears associated with reprisals', the validity of the assumption that 'everyone wants to return to the country of origin, is not questioned often enough, at least not officially'.

Second-generation refugees may not want to return to a home they know little about. These days, there are third-generation Afghans being born in Pakistan. Changes in lifestyle may be irreversible: after nearly 20 years in Pakistan, former farmers have become 'used to urban conditions and occupation or the 'refugee lifestyle' and some kuchis (nomads) may never migrate again.

This has produced an apparent deadlock - 'the host country, Pakistan, will never accept them as migrants, the refugees will never go back': the solution to which is unclear, as relocation in Pakistan or elsewhere does not appear to be a realistic option either.

A potential solution for the refugee problem lies in Afghanistan, with guarantees for Human Rights and possibilities for economic survival.