AFGHANISTAN: REFUGEES RETURN HOME FROM PAKISTAN AND IRAN AFTER DECADES OF FIGHTING

Record ID: 649619

  • Title: AFGHANISTAN: REFUGEES RETURN HOME FROM PAKISTAN AND IRAN AFTER DECADES OF FIGHTING
  • Date: 29th September 2004
  • Summary: (U3) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) WIDE OF UNHCR ENCASHMENT CENTRE, WITH RETURNEES WALKING FROM TRUCKS VARIOUS OF RETURNEES WALKING WIDE OF RETURNEES WAITING TO BE REGISTERED SMV UNHCR OFFICIAL LOOKING AT RETURNEE'S PAPERS CLOSE ON PAPERS PAN TO RETURED AFGHANI ANSWERING QUESTIONS SLV FAMILY LOOKING ON SLV OF RETURNEES QUEUING TO REGISTER CLOSE OF CHILD HOLDING FATHER'S HAND SMV MAN MOVING ALONG LINE TOWARDS REGISTRATION WIDE OF RETURNED REFUGEES WIDE OF RETURNEES BEING TAUGHT ABOUT LANDMINES SMV MAN AND CHILD LISTENING CLOSE OF DUMMY LANDMINE WIDE OF DUMMY MINEFIELD SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Dari) RETURNEE, MOHAMMAD HASSAN KHALIQI, SAYING: "We returned to Afghanistan because this country needs us to take part in it's reconstruction. When we have peace in our country. There is no need to live in another country." WIDE OF LINE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN MEDICAL TENT VARIOUS OF CHILDREN CRYING AS THEY ARE GIVEN INJECTIONS/ VACCINATIONS CLOSE OF BOY LOOKING ON SMV DOCTOR VACCINATING CHILD CLOSE OF OFFICIAL COUNTING U.S. DOLLARS SCU RETURNEE LOOKING ON SLV OF RETURNEES GATHERED ROUND TABLE / OFFICIAL HANDING OUT MONEY SLV DECORATED TRUCK DRIVING INTO ENCASHMENT CENTRE SLV UNHCR DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION, AFGHANISTAN, DANIEL ENDRES TALKING WITH RETURNEE SLV PEOPLE CLIMBING DOWN SIDE OF TRUCK SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNHCR DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION, AFGHANISTAN, DANIEL ENDRES, SAYING: "I think first of all it is the love to their country which is still so strongly felt when you visit refugees in Pakistan and Iran, they are deeply attached, and also I think it's now an opportunity for them to restart a new life." WIDE OF LOBBY OF ARMAN FM (AFGHAN RADIO STATION), WITH DIRECTOR SAAD MOHSENI (LEFT IN BLUE SHIRT) CLOSE ON MOHSENI WITH MOBILE PHONE WIDE OF RADIO BROADCASTING SHOW IN STUDIO SCU WOMAN WEARING HEADPHONES SPEAKING CLOSE OF ELECTRONIC CONTROL BOARD/ PAN TO MAN SPEAKING WIDE OF RADIO STUDIO SLV MOHSENI SPEAKING WITH EMPLOYEE SCU MOHSENI SCU EMPLOYEE TALKING SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOHSENI, SAYING: "Security is very important for most Afghans. Security has improved but not nearly as much as we would have hoped for, so that's something that we're crossing our fingers, keeping our fingers crossed that we will see some positive changes, that the government act as a strong government and to bring back security." (U3) MOHAMMAD KHEL REFUGEE CAMP, PANJ PAI, NEAR AFGHAN BORDER (RECENT) (REUTERS) SLV SIGN BOARD OF AFGHAN REFUGEE CAMP SLV SIGN OF UNHCR WIDE OF REFUGEE CAMP VARIOUS OF MUD HOUSES AT REFUGEE CAMP VARIOUS OF CHILDREN PLAYING WIDE OF DEMOLISHED HUTS AT THE CAMP SLV AN AFGHAN CHILD PEEPING FROM THE DOOR OF A MUD HOUSE SLV BOY COLLECTING WATER FROM PUMP WIDE OF CHILD WITH WHEELBARROW WITH CONTAINERS OF WATER
  • Embargoed: 14th October 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN AND MOHAMMAD KHEL REFUGEE CAMP, PANJ PAI, NEAR AFGHAN BORDER
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Topics: Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA66KD71C12ZOTNUY3FSHAVNUGO
  • Story Text: After decades of fighting millions of Afghans who were forced to flee the country are now returning.
    Tired, dirty and emotional, Afghan refugees finally arrive in Kabul after days of travel by road.
    These families, like thousands each week, have driven for days from refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran -- coming home after what for some has been decades of living in limbo on Afghanistan's borders.
    For some of the younger returnees, this is their first time in Afghanistan, having been born and raised in the camps their parents fled to.
    Since the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban administration in Afghanistan was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2002, over three million Afghans have flooded home from neighbouring countries.
    More than half a million refugees have returned to Afghanistan this year -- some 250,000 from Pakistan and 280,000 from Iran. At this UNHCR centre in Kabul, hundreds still arrive daily.
    With Afghanistan's first presidential elections coming up, and the hope of a peaceful future, many say they are coming back to help rebuild their war-shattered country -- despite the risks.
    "We returned to Afghanistan because this country needs us to take part in it's reconstruction. When we have peace in our country there is no need to live in another country," said returnee Mohammad Hassan Khaliqi.
    For many Afghan returnees, life in Afghanistan will be anything but easy. In Pakistan and Iran they had access to healthcare, education and a relatively comfortable standard of living.
    But in Afghanistan many face life without clean water, electricity or sewage and will have to live with a crumbling infrastructure, landmines and continued Taliban insurgency.
    The capital Kabul is straining under the pressure of a population swelled by returnees. Around 27 percent have come to the city, where the population has tripled to an estimated 3 million to 4 million people.
    In the rest of the country, warlords continue to control private armies, which means many former refugees are stepping back into the ethnic powder keg they fled.
    For returnees, like other Afghans, security is an ever-present worry -- and will be a strong influencing factor when they go the polls on October 9th.
    But UNHCR deputy chief of mission Daniel Andres says that emotional reasons continue to pull people back.
    "I think first of all it is the love to their country which is still so strongly felt when you visit refugees in Pakistan and Iran. They are deeply attached and also I think it's now an opportunity for them to restart a new life," he said.
    Across town, Saad Mohseni is at work at the local radio station he owns with three siblings. In 2002 he returned to Afghanistan after 24 years of living in Australia -- ready to take advantage of new-found peace and new-found freedoms.
    The slangy, youth-targeted programming, foreign music and entertainment that is Arman FM would never have been allowed under Taliban, but has made the station the most popular in greater Kabul.
    Mohseni -- who describes an emotional return to his homeland and an exhilarating couple of years setting up the station -- hopes to stay in Afghanistan and expand his growing media group.
    He wants the upcoming elections to result in improved security across the country.
    "Security is very important for most Afghans. Security has improved but not nearly as much as we would have hoped for, so that's something that we're crossing out fingers, keeping our fingers crossed that we will see some positive changes, that the government act as a strong government and to bring back security," he said.
    In the refugee camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the elections are being closely watched. Those who wish to return home hope it will bring further stability to the country.
    Those who wish to stay -- and may be forced to leave next year -- want to see what they will be going back to.
    Despite broad enthusiasm for the election in this sprawling refugee camp in Pakistan, an expanse of mud-walled huts separ ated by rubbish-strewn dirt roads, there is nothing to suggest a historic election is about to take place in less than a month.
    Many of the huts have already been destroyed, as families trickle back to their homes in Afghanistan.
    There has been no election campaign, no posters or rallies, and no campaigning by any of the 18 Afghan presidential candidates, seemingly oblivious to the estimated 500,000-600,000 eligible voters living in Pakistani camps.
    The U.N.-sponsored International Organisation of Migration (IOM) plans to set up more than 1,000 centres across Pakistan to register eligible voters among Afghan refugees from Oct. 1 to 3.
    Pakistan signed an agreement with the United Nations and the Afghan government in July to enable Afghan refugees to vote in their country's first presidential polls.
    But with less than a month left to the election and a lack of reliable data about the number of refugees, analysts say logistical and security problems could hamper their voting.
    The majority of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan are from the majority Pashtun ethnic group, traditional rulers of Afghanistan who live mainly in the south and east of the country.
    President Hamid Karzai, who is seeking re-election, is a Pashtun, and clear favourite to win the poll.
    lp/awa
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