ISLAMABAD, July 29: One of Pakistan’s oldest camps for Afghan refugees has been closed and another is set to be wound up by end-August, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, said on Sunday.

The Kacha Garhi camp in the NWFP was one of four camps UNHCR and Pakistan planned to close this year which Islamabad says have become havens for the Taliban, who are fighting an intensified insurgency in Afghanistan.Millions of Afghan people either live in refugee camps or work illegally in Pakistan and Iran.

“The Kacha Garhi camp was officially closed on July 26 and over 37,000 registered Afghans were assisted back to their country from the camp,” said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch.

“People went back on a voluntary basis, while some of the Afghan refugees opted for relocation to government-designated camps in Dir.”

Baloch said the Jalozai camp, also in the NWFP near the Afghan border, was scheduled to be closed on August 31.

“The peaceful closure of Kacha Garhi camp has set a very good example,” a UNHCR statement quoted Faridullah Jan, the Additional Commissioner of the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees in the NWFP, as saying.

While the Kacha Garhi camp has been closed peacefully, Pakistani authorities are facing difficulties in vacating the Jungle Pir Alizai camp in Balochistan, where the UNHCR stopped relief activities in 2005 after it had lost its “humanitarian value”, said an official.—Reuters