ISLAMABAD, May 16: The government has announced that it will close Afghan refugee camps in North Waziristan on June 15, offering Afghan residents the choice of voluntary repatriation or relocation, said a press release. Pakistan asked the UNHCR and Afghan government to approach the World Food Programme in Afghanistan to provide food rations of additional three months as an incentive for the refugees to return from the North West Frontier Agency and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which include North Waziristan.

The announcement came during a recent quarterly meeting of the Tripartite Commission comprising the United Nations High Commission on Refugees and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Pakistani delegation said that it expected to soon announce the closure of other refugee camps in the FATA and authorities this year planned to close the refugee camp of Katcha Ghari in Peshawar, which had been partially cleared two years ago.

However, Pakistan reaffirmed its commitment to gradual and voluntary repatriation as embedded in the Tripartite Agreement that set up the commission.

The participants of the meeting agreed that voluntary repatriation of Afghans remained the preferred solution to the presence of over three million Afghans in Pakistan.

Secretary of Ministry for States and Frontier Regions Sajid Hussain Chattha expressed concern over reduction of primary education budget for Afghan refugees and the lack of funding for their middle and secondary education and requested international support.

The meeting agreed that repatriation would be a lengthy process and many Afghans would still be in Pakistan when the current Tripartite Agreement, which governed the repatriation, expired next March.

The parties reaffirmed that the consultative process would continue and a decision on the future of the Tripartite Agreement would be made by September 2005.

It was highlighted by all parties that further development in Afghanistan was essential to create conditions for sustainable repatriation.

“I would therefore like to reassure that Pakistan will respect the voluntarism in the future repatriation and will relate this with the development process and objective conditions in Afghanistan,” the secretary told the meeting.

Afghan Minister for Repatriation and Refugees Mohammad Azam Dadfar said that his government was committed to providing land to returnees for shelter and had already initiated the process.

The UNHCR has launched talks with the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan about finding long term solutions for millions of Afghans still outside their national borders.

“I would like to reassure Pakistan and Afghanistan that the UNHCR is committed to playing a catalytic role in search of a comprehensive solution to manage the critical transition period after the Tripartite Agreement,” said UNHCR representative in Pakistan Guenet Guebre-Christos.