Refugee Return Overwhelms Aid Agencies

A quarter of a million exiled Afghans returned to their former villages and towns in the seven weeks before former king Mohammed Zaher Shah's much trumpeted homecoming last week.

The refuges they left and their return journeys were less comfortable than that of the 87-year-old ex-monarch. In spite of that, many more are on the way. Two million remain in Iran and 3 million in Pakistan, and both countries are unwilling to host them much longer.

Long convoys of trucks stretch the length of the highway from Pakistan to Kabul, packed to bursting with luggage and household goods. The returnees sing and clap as their elders point out new and old sights.

"My father sacrificed his life for freedom and I love my country more than any other place in the world," said Hameedullah, an 18-year-old refugee who had never even seen his homeland.

Most were glad to see the back of Pakistan. "I was fed up with a life of exile," Abdul Basheer said. The refugees speak of abuse and harassment at the hands of the Pakistani police. "Afghans really know Pakistanis now," Basheer added sourly.

Few believe humane impulses motivated Pakistan to host the millions of Afghans who fled their country to escape fighting and political and religious extremism over the last two decades or so.

They cite former Pakistani leader Zia ul-Haq's dictum that "Afghanistan's war is Pakistan's defence". The sprawling refugee camps provided cover for Islamabad to secretly interfere in Afghan affairs and acted as a springboard for covert cross-border military intervention.

"What Pakistan wanted from us is to fight and die so they could live safely and in peace," Basheer mused. "The Pakistanis should have been kinder to us. We saved their lives, not they ours."

Out on the roads to Kabul the talk is of safety, with many fearful of the lawlessness that's broken out in some parts of the country. Above all they voiced concern at their lack of money for their homecoming.

Many complained that their Pakistani landlords had not repaid the deposits of around 10,000 rupees (166 US dollars) they originally demanded as a deposit. Some said they dropped sand and pebbles into the water systems by way of reprisal; one defrauded departing tenant burnt down his rented home.

The cash sum paid by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, to each returning family, covers less than half the 12-13,000 rupees they must pay for the hire of a truck to ferry them home.

Before they set out, there is the long wait for the UN's struggling bureaucracy. At the start of their journey, they receive a UNHCR form with four copies. The agency keeps one and sends the family off on the road through the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan.

On presenting the second form at Momandara, near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, UNHCR gives families 20 dollars per head - up to a maximum of 100 dollars - to cover their transportation costs. Once they reach their destination, they can exchange the third copy for 150 kg of wheat, oil and other food, plus a tent, dishes, blankets, lamps and other household essentials.

The families keep the fourth form as proof of their status in case there is work available with NGOs.

Some Afghans fraudulently try to claim a second sum of money by sneaking back into Pakistan and rolling through the checkpoints twice. It rarely works but the attempted scams have forced the UNHCR to tighten up inspections, which slows the whole procedure.

The UN provides medical care in the camps where they begin their journey. In one camp, in Takhta Baig outside Peshawar, a doctor, who gave his name as Noorullah, said they were poorly equipped to deal with the problems they faced.

"It is very hot, there is no (safe) drinking water, just dust and mud and lots of illness, like flu or diarrhea, which, though easy to treat, can still kill," he said. " But what really worries me is that soon it will get much hotter and children will start dying because of the lack of shade."

The UNHCR deputy director of information, Abdul Qayum Karim, said his colleagues had been overwhelmed. "We prepared for 400,000 people to return to Afghanistan over the whole of this year but 203,000 have come over in the space of five weeks and who can tell how many will come in the next five weeks," he said. "Our resources are limited. Without more help from the international community we cannot do more."

To cope with the numbers of returnees, new processing centres are being opened in the Pakistani provinces of Baluchistan, Quetta and Nawapas. Additional centres are planned for Peshawar and Karachi. Karim said UNHCR could do nothing to increase the 100 dollar maximum stipend for each returning family. He was aware of the costs of travel but said the agency had to work with figures set by foreign donor nations.

The Afghan authorities, meanwhile, are trying to protect the returnees from robbery or assault on their journey home. "We try to act against any prejudice they might face," said Abdul Fattah Bahmanesh, director of planning and international relations in the ministry of refugee affairs.

Most of the refugees are heading for Kabul and the cities, which are least equipped to accommodate them, said Yusuf Hassan, of UNHCR. "The majority of people who left this country did so as rural people but in Pakistan they became urbanised," he said. "There is a major demographic shift going on."

Yet many returnees at Takhta Baig are undaunted by the hurdles facing them. "I will go to Afghanistan whether I survive or die there," said Ghulam Haider, who had lived in a refugee camp on the edge of Peshawar for 20 years. "May God keep Afghanistan free from war and may every refugee from all parts of the world return."

Hafizullah Gardish is a Kabul-based freelance journalist and Atta-u-Rahman Fitra is a Peshawar based journalist.