PESHAWAR, Aug 2: Some 230,000 Afghan refugees of the 1.3 million repatriated by the UNHCR have sneaked back into Pakistan through unfrequented routes along the porous border, official sources told Dawn on Friday.

The UNHCR verification teams rejected the cases of more than 50,000 returning families at the voluntary repatriation centres in Pakistan on technical grounds since March.

“Our verification teams have rejected 53,952 families’ cases throughout Pakistan since the voluntary repatriation began on March 1,” an official of the UN refugee agency disclosed and added  that about 1.3 million refugees and displaced people had registered themselves for repatriation only in Pakistan.

The sources said that fake cases had also been detected when the returning families reappeared before the verification teams to  get  financial  grant, food and other  assistance  from  the UNHCR.

These “recycled refugees” return to Pakistan illegally and take shelter in the rural and urban areas of the country.

Surprisingly, the government has deployed around 100,000 troops, including paramilitary forces and Khasadar Force along the western border, but despite that infiltration continues.

It is learnt that Afghans were making their way into Pakistan with the connivance of Pakistani border security forces.

Information gathered by Dawn revealed that the number of returnees had decreased by 50 per cent during the last couple of weeks. About 20,700 displaced families went back to their country in July, 24,000 families in June, 41,000 families in May, and 41,958 families in April this year.

Initially, the UNHCR had planned to repatriate 800,000 refugees in 2002, but due to the sudden increase in the number of returnees, the agency had to revise its plan.

The UN refugee agency has planned to repatriate about one million displaced people from Pakistan in 2003, the sources said.