afghanistan

UNHCR’s Operation
in Afghanistan
Donor Update
AFGHANISTAN
1 March 2003
Distribution of items needed for the winter season. Photo credit: UNHCR / Babar Baluch
Recent Developments
In mid February, UNHCR held a regional strategic planning meeting to establish strategic
objectives and policies to guide the Afghanistan operation through to the period after the
Afghan elections (scheduled for 2004). Senior staff from all three countries, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran met with colleagues from Geneva and a small
group of external stakeholders. They discussed the need for UNHCR to continue to focus on
gradual and voluntary repatriation. Participants agreed on the importance of maintaining travel
assistance for returnees for as long as possible (until after the 2004 elections, at least) as well as
the need to provide essential support for refugees in countries of asylum until after the
elections. They discussed proposals that UNHCR should gradually shift focus inside
Afghanistan from material assistance to capacity building, technical assistance, monitoring and
evaluation. The results of the strategic planning meeting will be fed into the country operations
plans for 2004 and beyond.
Protection
The Return Commission
Senior officials representing northern Afghanistan's main political and ethnic factions agreed on
28 February to improve security and work to end ethnic tensions during the first-ever meeting
of the government-sponsored Return Commission for the north. The Return Commission is
established specifically to overcome obstacles, which prevent the return of certain minorities to
northern Afghanistan.
The meeting, which was opened by the High Commissioner and chaired by the Minister for
Refugees and Repatriation, Enyatullah Nazari, included the region's main commander, General
Abdul Rashid Dostum from the Jumbush party, General Ustad Atta Mohammad from the
Jamiat party, and the Hezb-e-Wahdat party's local head, Saradar Saeedi. Representatives from
the Afghan Human Rights Commission and the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan
(UNAMA) also attended the meeting.
One of the purposes of the meeting was to discuss and possibly endorse the recommendations
of a joint group, which has worked for months across five provinces to identify and address
obstacles for return. The recommendations put forward by the working group were adopted
unanimously. Under an accord signed by the three leaders following the meeting, they agreed
to broadly publicize the groundbreaking agreement. They also said that they would take
measures against any of their local commanders who do wrong.
For UNHCR and the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation the endorsement represents
concrete progress in the bid to provide solutions for the most complicated cases among the
millions of Afghans who have yet to return home. This Return Commission for the North is the
first in a series of commissions set up to explore ways to reduce the ethnic tensions that make
many displaced Afghans reluctant to return to their homes.
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Donor Update 1 March 2003
Property and Land Ownership
One of many issues recently highlighted is that of land ownership and tenure. Only 20 per cent
of returnees record that they own land when filling in voluntary repatriation forms, and many of
those who do own land or property find it difficult to re-establish ownership on their return.
A series of informal meetings have been held to discuss land and property disputes in Kabul,
and it is being proposed that a Land Task Force be set up for the region, to mirror initiatives
being taken by UNHCR and UNAMA in Mazar. The aim would be to collect information on
land disputes, provide feedback and support, and begin setting up mechanisms of referral to
both central and regional judicial structures.
Property restitution and land ownership (or the lack thereof) are some of the most pressing
issues refugees bring to the legal aid centres UNHCR and the Norwegian Refugee Council set
up with NGO partners in Pakistan last year. Some 500 landless families have asked for help in
petitioning the government in Kabul for land. UNHCR is also in the process of setting up
similar legal aid centres in areas of high refugee return in Afghanistan.
Repatriation
Assisted voluntary repatriation from Pakistan is now resuming, after a one-month break during
which UNHCR trained repatriation staff from all over Pakistan and Afghanistan and set up four
iris recognition centres in a bid to further safeguard against those who abuse the system be
trying to repatriate several times ("recycling").
This year, instead of registering with voluntary repatriation centres, returnees will sign up with
mobile teams who will operate in Baluchistan, Karachi, North West Frontier Province and
Punjab. During registration, each head of household completes a voluntary repatriation form
which includes a family photo and biographical details as well as information about where the
family came from, where it aims to go, how long it has been in Pakistan, what education and
skills different family members have, etc.
They will then go through the new iris recognition centres located on or near the border with
Afghanistan - in Chaman, Ali Zai and Takhta Baig in Pakistan and Khost, Afghanistan. The
recognition process simply takes a photograph of the iris to establish whether or not it has been
seen before. The only record kept is the image of the eye: no biographical information is
recorded.
Some 1.8 million Afghans remain in Pakistan. Last year, 1.6 million received assistance from
UNHCR and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to go back to Afghanistan. Some 82
per cent of these returnees went back from urban areas. Many of those remaining live in the
200-odd camps that have grown up over the past 23 years, where they receive some very basic
assistance. Meanwhile the 210,000 Afghans living in the new camps (those created in 2000 and
2001) and the Chaman waiting area receive food aid from the World Food Programme as well
as basic relief and services.
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Donor Update 1 March 2003
There has been no break in the programme of assisted return from Iran. People have continued
to return from Iran through the winter, some with assistance, some simply going on their own.
On the first two days of March, almost 1,000 Afghans repatriated via the Dogharoun crossing
point. In total, some 400,000 Afghans have gone home since the governments of the Islamic
Republic of Iran and Afghanistan signed a tripartite voluntary repatriation agreement with
UNHCR in April last year. The majority has returned with assistance from UNHCR and the
Governments of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Reintegration
Recent falls of rain and snow have relieved some of the country's severe water problems
(reservoirs in Helmand and Kandahar are said to be filling up) but have been less welcome in
IDP and refugee camps where some families have lost their homes. UNHCR and its partners
are working to alleviate the suffering of these families and distributing relief items on a caseby-case basis.
In Pakistan, UNHCR has continued to distribute tents, food, coal and blankets to newlyhomeless families in Baluchistan and NWFP. Operations in the Chaman and Spin Boldak areas
have been badly affected by the floods, which cut all access to one of the Chaman camps.
Bulldozers cleared the road, however, and full health, water and sanitation services have now
been restored.
In Afghanistan, UNHCR continues to focus on shelter, water and income generating activities
in the rural return areas to encourage people to build up there lives there as opposed to moving
to the urban areas. By the end of 2003, UNHCR plans to have built a further 60,000 shelters for
returnee families. The first consignment of internationally procured timber is due to arrive in
Karachi in the second week of March and should reach Afghanistan by early April. The
consignment will include timber for use in 30,000 shelters in programmes run out of Gardez,
Herat, Jalalabad and Mazar.
Funding
Under the Afghan government's 2003 Transitional Assistance Programme for Afghanistan
(TAPA) announced in Oslo in December, UNHCR's budget for its Afghan repatriation and
assistance programme is US$194.7 million. Of this, $156.9 million is needed to cover
repatriation and reintegration costs: e.g. transport assistance, building 60,000 houses, digging
wells, and monitoring the human rights situation of returnees. The remaining $37.8 million
primarily covers activities in Iran and Pakistan - essentially assistance to remaining refugees.
At present, UNHCR only has at its disposal around US$24 million. The lack of available
resources has already prompted UNHCR to adopt a phased approach to such key programmes
as water and shelter. A limited number of wells and shelters will be contracted now, while new
projects will be undertaken only as funds become available. UNHCR urgently requires funds so
it can make the necessary preparations for this year's repatriation operation. If those funds do
not come in, it will be very difficult for the organization to carry out the activities it has told
the Afghan Government and people it will do this year.
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Donor Update 1 March 2003