AFGHANISTAN: THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES RUUD LUBBERS HAS ARRIVED IN KABUL

Record ID: 275274

  • Title: AFGHANISTAN: THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES RUUD LUBBERS HAS ARRIVED IN KABUL
  • Date: 24th August 2002
  • Summary: (W5) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (AUGUST 24, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV KABUL AIRPORT, PLANE CARRYING RUUD LUBBERS, UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES 0.03 2. LV LUBBERS GETTING OFF PLANE 0.12 3. SV AFGHAN OFFICIALS AND UNITED NATIONS REPRESENTATIVES GREETING LUBBERS 0.17 4. SLV/SV RUUD LUBBERS AND UN REPRESENTATIVES ME
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KABUL AND PUL-I-CHARKI, AFGHANISTAN
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA2LQFR0LS99BH0W90OD5TYQZLT
  • Story Text: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
    Ruud Lubbers, has arrived in Kabul to discuss the unexpectedly
    large influx of returnees and assess the need for more funding
    to help larger numbers come back home.



    UNHCR Ruud Lubbers is on a fact-finding mission to the
    southern Afghan city of Kandahar where some 400,000 displaced
    Afghans live.

    He flew into Kabul on Saturday (August 24) where he is due
    to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the issue of
    an estimated 3 million Afghan refugees currently sheltering in
    Pakistan and Iran, bordering Afghanistan.

    Lubbers also plans to visit a camp in Spin Boldak, south
    of Kandahar and just across the border from Pakistan, where
    another 30,000 returning Afghans are receiving UN food and
    assistance.

    On the other side of the border, in Chaman, another 25,000
    displaced Afghan families have been stranded in Chaman for the
    past 10 months, forced out of their villages by years of
    drought, ethnic tensions and relentless war.

    The UNHCR has been helping Afghans return home since
    April, shortly after US and allied forces flushed out the
    former Taliban regime.

    It now needs more money to help those stranded in the
    border region to return home.

    Pakistan, already burdened with millions of Afghan
    refugees, refuses to take in more, forcing the new arrivals to
    take shelter in the makeshift camps right on the border.

    Speaking at the airport Lubbers said the return of the
    refugees was essential for the stability of the country and
    that the project could not be abandoned.

    "We have to do more in terms of reintegration so that
    there are sustainable returns and that adds to peace, because
    security is a pre condition for our repatriation, but
    repatriation now has to assist to build a secure Afghanistan,"
    Lubbers.

    But some of the displaced Afghans in Chaman said in
    recent interviews they were not so keen to move to a new camp
    in Zhare Dasht, (Yellow Desert), west of Kandahar - nor did
    they want to return home.

    Zhare Dasht is a bleak patch of land surrounded by land
    mines. But the UN says it is a better camp than the makeshift,
    tented settlements on the border.

    On the other hand it does not want to attract any other of
    the 400,000 displaced people in south-western Afghanistan.

    Lubbers said he was proud of the fact that 1.5 million
    Afghans had already come back since April but stressed that
    the UN had to continue to build their trust in order to
    encourage more returns.

    "Its proof, because it's voluntary returns, that the
    people are very much motivated to do so, that's the first
    thing. And then we can inform them about the situation, and
    also when there are problems, but we try to do it a fair way.

    And then we facilitate them, in a modest way, because they are
    not motivated and we go with them. There is a trust factor
    involved. So the numbers then are very substantial, it started
    very much from Pakistan but it's picking up also from Iran,"
    Lubbers said.

    The UNHCR says it will continue to provide returnees with
    transport assistance ranging from 5 to 30 U.S. dollars per
    person, family kits containing tarpaulin, soap and basic
    hygiene products, as well as wheat flour donated by the World
    Food Programme (WFP).

    But it is appealing for an extra 40 million U.S. dollars
    to help it meet its assistance target.

    Things were quiet at Pul-I-Charki camp on the outskirts of
    Kabul. This is the main processing point for refugees
    travelling from Peshawar to Kabul.

    Hundreds of refugees sat in the baking sun, trying to get
    shade under their overladen coaches and trucks, waiting to be
    processed after the weekend.

    For Mohahid, a 13-year old Afghan refugee who had spent
    all his life in Pakistan, this was a big day.

    "I am very happy I came back to my country, I no longer
    want to live in Pakistan."
    He did not know if his family would be able to move back
    into their old home in Kabul. Many refugees discover that
    their homes were destroyed by almost a quarter of a century of
    fighting.

    The European Commission recently announced a further
    package of humanitarian aid to the tune of EUR16.724 million
    for Afghans living inside the country and as refugees in
    neighbouring states.

    This aid will support assistance for drought-affected
    populations - drinking water, irrigation, primary health care
    and nutritional support-, refugees - building shelters,
    provision of medi-care and nutritional support- as well as
    prisoners held in Afghanistan.

    Part of the aid package will be used to provide
    logistical support in air and land transport. Since the
    beginning of 2001, the Commission has granted over 100 million
    for the victims of the Afghan crisis.
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