LAHORE, July 16: Afghan Pakhtoons living the country are reluctant to return to their homeland owing to a volatile environment over there.

Commissioner for Afghan Refugees Sarfrazul Haq Baig told Dawn that the return of the refugees had begun from March this year. So far, one million Afghan refugees had returned to their homeland, he said while quoting the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of them, Mr Baig said, belonged to non-Pakhtoon tribes. Pakhtoons were not opting for return, he said, adding “The environment is not conducive for them.”

The Pakhtoons had not got the share they believed they deserved in the new Afghan setup, he said, adding “Most of the Pakhtoons simply reply that going back means death.”

Despite this, he said, sending back one million people to their country was a big success and that, too, in a short span.

Around 3.2 million Afghan refugees had been living in Pakistan before the return process took place in March. Now an estimated 2.2 million registered Afghans were based in Pakistan and some of them had been here for more than 20 years. Of them, 412,000 were in the Punjab. Many of them were earning a living as labourers or had set up small businesses and showed no sign of going back to their war-torn country.

The UNHCR and the Pakistani government had reached an agreement weeks ago to open 11 new refugee camps, permit Afghans to enter the camps without fear of deportation.

A UNHCR report said the estimated 135,000 so-called invisible refugees who had entered Pakistan through back roads and mountain passes since Sept 11 would be allowed to move into the new camps without fear of being deported back to Afghanistan.

The commissioner for Afghan refugees said the return process had been confined to the NWFP and Balochistan uptil now. It had not yet started in the Punjab, he said.

Mr Baig said the UNHCR had offered different incentives for those opting to go back home. Each refugee leaving Pakistan was given a voucher of $60 which was encashed after he entered Afghanistan, he maintained. Besides, he said, the UNHCR helped the refugees settle down in their homeland.