KABUL, Oct 6: Fears over security and plummeting winter temperatures in Afghanistan are driving the refugees newly arrived in the country back over the border into the neighbouring Pakistan, the United Nations said.

“Since mid-September we are seeing an increase in the number of Afghan families going back to Pakistan,” Maki Shinohara of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) told reporters on Sunday.

Shinohara said that at least 215 families had been recorded crossing back into Pakistan at the Torkham border. Some 100 families also returned over a 10-day period in August.

She said the return was partly a seasonal migration due to the drop in temperatures, but was also prompted by concerns over safety in Afghanistan which was recovering from two decades of conflict.

“Many families say they are planning to spend the winter in Pakistan and wait until spring to return and work on their homes in Afghanistan.

“Others described the lack of economic opportunities, concerns for security or education for their children as the reasons for going back to Pakistan,” she said.

Shinohara said the reverse migration was not a new phenomenon, but numbers were higher this year.

Some 1.75 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan as part of the UNHCR’s voluntary repatriation scheme, the majority from Pakistan and Iran.

Refugees’ arrivals in Afghanistan during the first nine months of this year have far outstripped initial UN expectations, although the rate has sharply declined in recent weeks ahead of the onset of winter.

“This reverse migration, albeit temporary, shows also the importance of continued international support to help reconstruct Afghanistan,” the UNHCR spokeswoman said.

“After decades of being forgotten by the world, the Afghans deserve the international attention, and aid promises must be fulfilled throughout to coming years, otherwise the risk is families fleeing again the country, never to come back.”—AFP