INDONESIA: FIRST GROUP OF AFGHAN REFUGEES WHO FLED THE TALIBAN REGIME BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY HOME

Record ID: 275268

  • Title: INDONESIA: FIRST GROUP OF AFGHAN REFUGEES WHO FLED THE TALIBAN REGIME BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY HOME
  • Date: 11th May 2002
  • Summary: JAKARTA, INDONESIA (MAY 10, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. MV AFGHANS PREPARING TO LEAVE GUESTHOUSE; HUGGING FRIENDS; SCU MAN CRYING; MV AFGHANS BOARD BUS (5 SHOTS) 0.36 2. SCU FAREWELL/FRIENDS CRYING; MV AFGHANS ON BUS; SCU WOMAN AND BABY; SLV BUS LEAVES FOR AIRPORT (3 SHOTS) 1.08 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) RICHARD DANZIGER, DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL OR
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA4AA18V87EGYUO2KHZDR4H9BNI
  • Story Text: Weeping tears of joy, the first group of Afghan
    refugees stranded in Indonesia after fleeing the
    fundamentalist Taliban, have begun their long journey
    home to Kabul.

    Under a voluntary repatriation programme organised
    by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), some 36
    Afghans hugged and kissed their friends as they boarded a
    charter flight to Dubai en route to Kabul on Friday (May 10).

    Bidding a final and emotional farewell, they boarded the
    flight that would send them home.

    IOM Indonesia director Richard Danziger said he could see
    more Afghans going home after this first batch.

    "This is the first group of Afghans in Indonesia who have
    volunteered to go home. Next week there are 70 more and I
    think as time goes on and news filters back from Kabul from
    the first ones that things are ok, I think we will see more
    going," said IOM Indonesia director Richard Danziger.

    One of those returning, Doctor Abdul Rasyid said he was
    confident peace would return to his war-ravaged country.

    "I expect a peaceful government and I think it is a green
    light. There is the hope of peace in our country and therefore
    we are returning to work hard for our country, because our
    country needs us and we need our country," he said.

    Rasyid, who miraculously survived when a wooden boat
    capsized as he was trying to get to Australia, said he'd left
    Afghanistan because the Taliban government had threatened to
    kidnap and kill his family.

    Thousands of illegal migrants, mostly from Afghanistan and
    the Middle East, have arrived in Indonesia in recent years
    before embarking on perilous sea voyages to Australia where
    they try to slip in illegally.

    But now the 37-year-old plans to return to his old job
    working for a U.N. medical programme in Kabul.

    Rasyid's seven-year-daughter Zainab was also overjoyed at
    the prospect of returning.

    "I'm very happy...I can go to school in Kabul," she
    beamed. Girls and women were prohibited from receiving any
    form of education under the Taliban regime.

    Repatriation from Indonesia is part of a worldwide
    movement of millions of Afghan refugees back to their
    devastated country after the fall of the hardline Taliban
    regime.

    The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will
    pay the travel costs for the returnees as well as assist them
    once they arrive home.

    The U.N. refugee agency has estimated there are some 3.7
    million Afghan refugees but the precarious security situation
    in their homeland is still preventing many from returning.

    Anti-Taliban forces ousted the regime in December after a
    massive U.S. air campaign, triggered by the Taliban's refusal
    to surrender Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, blamed by
    Washington for the September 11 attacks.


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