KABUL, Aug 7: A senior US official on Wednesday accused the European Union of failing to shoulder its share of the burden for returning Afghan refugees, warning that shortfalls in funding could jeopardize the whole repatriation programme.

Assistant Secretary of State Arthur Dewey told reporters here that “the US has done more than its fair share in supporting the multilateral system of the return of refugees and IDPs (internally displaced people)”.

The US was now “providing nearly 100 percent of the food that is now coming into Afghanistan through the World Food Programme” as other countries were failing to support the UN agency and instead channelling their money through non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“It’s been somewhat disappointing for us to see some of the other donors ... almost playing the role of the United Nations themselves by giving their money directly to NGOs and trying to implement programmes directly on behalf of refugees which are mandated” to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The UNHCR has had to cut back its package of support in recent months for returning refugees. The agency had originally planned for the return of 800,000 this year but more than 1.5 million have already returned, UNHCR official Daniel Anders told the press conference.

“There is a risk that this will have an extremely adverse impact on the sustainability of the returns,” said Dewey.

“The possible result of this could be the flocking of refugees to the cities, adding to the burden of cities such as Kabul. The worst case of course would be for them to go back to Pakistan or Iran.

“What’s at stake is the sustainability of this effort.”

He warned of “a shortfall in donor suport, particularly from Europe” adding that the European Commission’s humanitarian department (ECO) was having an “adverse impact on the work of UNHCR... by providing most of its refugees money directly to NGOs.

“We are working very hard with ECO to encourage them to use the international system to get off unlilateralist track and become multilateralists donors such as we are.”

Dewey also announced that the United States was contributing two million dollars to the children’s agency UNICEF, but he warned that there would be no more donations this year.

“There may be a tendency (by other donors) to wait on the United States, to expect too much from the United States and right now I have to tell them and you that we have gone to the bank for the last time this year.”—AFP