VARIOUS: REPATRIATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES GRINDS TO A HALT DUE TO VIOLENCE NEAR KEY CROSSING POINTS

Record ID: 275197

  • Title: VARIOUS: REPATRIATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES GRINDS TO A HALT DUE TO VIOLENCE NEAR KEY CROSSING POINTS
  • Date: 12th April 2002
  • Summary: (U5) PENJ RIVER VALLEY, AFGHAN-TAJIK BORDER (APRIL 10, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV AFGHAN REFUGEES WAITING/ UNHCR TRUCK MOVING INTO POSITION AFGHAN REFUGEES CLIMBING ABOARD TRUCK/ MV SUPPLIES OF BURNING WOOD PILED IN TRUCK (3 SHOTS) 0.13 2. MV UNHCR, TAJIK BORDER OFFICIALS AND AFGHAN REFUGEE REPRESENTATIVES IN TALKS 0.21 3. SLV REFUGEE WOMEN WAI
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PENJ RIVER VALLEY, AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORDER
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA7LJLQN6AB9T2ZVGZHO4LXYOIU
  • Story Text: The return home of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees
    living in Tajikistan has ground largely to a halt because of
    violence near key crossing points on Afghanistan's borders
    with Pakistan and Iran.

    More than 10,000 Afghans came to this Tajikistan
    border town in the central Asian republic, fleeing the
    Taliban. Now two years later they are finally heading back to
    their home towns and villages in north eastern Afghanistan.

    Tajik border officials said on Wednesday (April 10) that
    almost 2,000 Afghans men, women and children, had left the
    Penj River valley area in Tajikistan, and already returned to
    areas around the regional town of Kunduz in north eastern
    Afghanistan.

    Many of the refugees have been ferried back into
    Afghanistan aboard trucks, though some opted to walk across
    the width of the Penj river into Afghanistan. Others crammed
    their possessions, and even their donkeys, on small boats and
    canoes for the journey across the frontier.

    The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, assisted by the
    Tajik authorities, started the repatriation programme last
    Monday (April 8).

    But for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, their
    return home across the borders Afghanistan shares with
    Pakistan and Iran has been hampered.

    Violence, from protests by poppy farmers and
    demonstrations against electricity cuts on the eastern border
    with Pakistan to factional fighting on the western border with
    Iran, has held up about 40,000 refugees.

    The UNHCR says there are some 1.5 million Afghan refugees
    in Iran. Some two million Afghan refugees are in Pakistan.

    Smaller numbers, around 100,000 are spread through frontier
    areas in former Soviet central Asian republics on
    Afghanistan's northern borders.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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