QUETTA, April 17: All Afghan refugees would be repatriated to their country by 2005 under the accord signed by Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees last month in Brussels, UNHCR Country Representative Hasim Utkan said at a press conference on Thursday.

He said around 12,000 refugees had returned to their country voluntarily while others were approaching the UNHCR to register for reparation. He said the process was started in March.

He said the UNHCR would help 70,000 to 80,000 refugees in repatriation during 2003, including around 30,000 from Balochistan.

He said the UNHCR was making all out efforts for removing the hurdles in the way of the refugees’ return.

He said the Afghan government would accept the certificates obtained from Pakistani schools.

Replying to a question he said that last year 1.6 million refugees had returned to Afghanistan and a majority of them had settled in their areas. Only three to four per cent refugees came back, he said. “Mostly Afghans returned to Pakistan due to health reason as medical facilities are poor in Afghanistan,” he said.

He said the UNHCR was making efforts to provide maximum facilities to the Afghans in their country so that they should not come back.

“We will increase facilities for the refugees living in Spin Buldak and the Zari Dashat camp near Kandahar due to security reason,” Mr Utkan told a questioner.

He said the pace of repatriation remained slow due to lack of shelter, health facilities, employment and other amenities in Afghanistan. “We are trying to resolve these problems and launching development programmes,” he said.

He said that during the current year, focus for repatriation would be on the refugees living in camps.

He said he had talked to provincial government officials and the Afghan refugees’ commissioner about the repatriation.

Federal Minister Aftab Sherpao will visit Kabul on May 22 to discuss related issues.