Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN refugee agency will close four refugees camps near the border and relocate or repatriate some 50,000 Afghans residing there, officials said yesterday after a two-day meeting in Kabul. Afghanistanâs Deputy Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Mohammad Naeem Ghiacy told reporters Kabul, Islamabad and the UNHCR agreed that the number of camps close to the border should be reduced for a lack of proper facilities.
| Couldn't have anything to do with the Afghans bitching about them being chock full of Taliban, could it? |
Two camps in the Chaman area of Balochistan province bordering southern Afghanistan and the two Shalman camps on the Khyber Pass in North West Frontier Province established after the US-led assault to topple the Taleban regime would be closed. Hasim Utkan, head of UNHCR operations in Pakistan, said 50,000 people will be affected by the campsâ closures. âBut since we are in a voluntary repatriation mode itâs either repatriation or relocation,â he said.
| I doubt if they'll repatriate. That could cut them off from their ammunition resupply lines... |
He said the camps had been established as close as five kilometers to the border in the emergency situation following the fall of the Taleban. âThis is not in line with international principles; camps have to be at a certain distance from the border and something which is acceptable in an emergency situation is more difficult to acceptâ two years later, he said. UNHCR coordinator for refugee repatriation Salvatore Lombardo said the process of closing the camps would begin in February 2004.
| The sooner, the better, I'd say... |
âRefugees would be offered two options, either assistance to return to Afghanistan or relocation to another camp where they would continue to be offered assistance by the UNHCR,â he told AFP. He said the four affected camps were unsatisfactory both in terms of security and quality of life, as even water must be trucked in to some of the camps. Some 200 refugee camps dot the Pakistani landscape. |