afghanistan
Transkript
afghanistan
UNHCR’s Operation in Afghanistan Donor Update AFGHANISTAN 1 March 2003 Distribution of items needed for the winter season. Photo credit: UNHCR / Babar Baluch Recent Developments In mid February, UNHCR held a regional strategic planning meeting to establish strategic objectives and policies to guide the Afghanistan operation through to the period after the Afghan elections (scheduled for 2004). Senior staff from all three countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran met with colleagues from Geneva and a small group of external stakeholders. They discussed the need for UNHCR to continue to focus on gradual and voluntary repatriation. Participants agreed on the importance of maintaining travel assistance for returnees for as long as possible (until after the 2004 elections, at least) as well as the need to provide essential support for refugees in countries of asylum until after the elections. They discussed proposals that UNHCR should gradually shift focus inside Afghanistan from material assistance to capacity building, technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation. The results of the strategic planning meeting will be fed into the country operations plans for 2004 and beyond. Protection The Return Commission Senior officials representing northern Afghanistan's main political and ethnic factions agreed on 28 February to improve security and work to end ethnic tensions during the first-ever meeting of the government-sponsored Return Commission for the north. The Return Commission is established specifically to overcome obstacles, which prevent the return of certain minorities to northern Afghanistan. The meeting, which was opened by the High Commissioner and chaired by the Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, Enyatullah Nazari, included the region's main commander, General Abdul Rashid Dostum from the Jumbush party, General Ustad Atta Mohammad from the Jamiat party, and the Hezb-e-Wahdat party's local head, Saradar Saeedi. Representatives from the Afghan Human Rights Commission and the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) also attended the meeting. One of the purposes of the meeting was to discuss and possibly endorse the recommendations of a joint group, which has worked for months across five provinces to identify and address obstacles for return. The recommendations put forward by the working group were adopted unanimously. Under an accord signed by the three leaders following the meeting, they agreed to broadly publicize the groundbreaking agreement. They also said that they would take measures against any of their local commanders who do wrong. For UNHCR and the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation the endorsement represents concrete progress in the bid to provide solutions for the most complicated cases among the millions of Afghans who have yet to return home. This Return Commission for the North is the first in a series of commissions set up to explore ways to reduce the ethnic tensions that make many displaced Afghans reluctant to return to their homes. 2 Donor Update 1 March 2003 Property and Land Ownership One of many issues recently highlighted is that of land ownership and tenure. Only 20 per cent of returnees record that they own land when filling in voluntary repatriation forms, and many of those who do own land or property find it difficult to re-establish ownership on their return. A series of informal meetings have been held to discuss land and property disputes in Kabul, and it is being proposed that a Land Task Force be set up for the region, to mirror initiatives being taken by UNHCR and UNAMA in Mazar. The aim would be to collect information on land disputes, provide feedback and support, and begin setting up mechanisms of referral to both central and regional judicial structures. Property restitution and land ownership (or the lack thereof) are some of the most pressing issues refugees bring to the legal aid centres UNHCR and the Norwegian Refugee Council set up with NGO partners in Pakistan last year. Some 500 landless families have asked for help in petitioning the government in Kabul for land. UNHCR is also in the process of setting up similar legal aid centres in areas of high refugee return in Afghanistan. Repatriation Assisted voluntary repatriation from Pakistan is now resuming, after a one-month break during which UNHCR trained repatriation staff from all over Pakistan and Afghanistan and set up four iris recognition centres in a bid to further safeguard against those who abuse the system be trying to repatriate several times ("recycling"). This year, instead of registering with voluntary repatriation centres, returnees will sign up with mobile teams who will operate in Baluchistan, Karachi, North West Frontier Province and Punjab. During registration, each head of household completes a voluntary repatriation form which includes a family photo and biographical details as well as information about where the family came from, where it aims to go, how long it has been in Pakistan, what education and skills different family members have, etc. They will then go through the new iris recognition centres located on or near the border with Afghanistan - in Chaman, Ali Zai and Takhta Baig in Pakistan and Khost, Afghanistan. The recognition process simply takes a photograph of the iris to establish whether or not it has been seen before. The only record kept is the image of the eye: no biographical information is recorded. Some 1.8 million Afghans remain in Pakistan. Last year, 1.6 million received assistance from UNHCR and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to go back to Afghanistan. Some 82 per cent of these returnees went back from urban areas. Many of those remaining live in the 200-odd camps that have grown up over the past 23 years, where they receive some very basic assistance. Meanwhile the 210,000 Afghans living in the new camps (those created in 2000 and 2001) and the Chaman waiting area receive food aid from the World Food Programme as well as basic relief and services. 3 Donor Update 1 March 2003 There has been no break in the programme of assisted return from Iran. People have continued to return from Iran through the winter, some with assistance, some simply going on their own. On the first two days of March, almost 1,000 Afghans repatriated via the Dogharoun crossing point. In total, some 400,000 Afghans have gone home since the governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Afghanistan signed a tripartite voluntary repatriation agreement with UNHCR in April last year. The majority has returned with assistance from UNHCR and the Governments of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Reintegration Recent falls of rain and snow have relieved some of the country's severe water problems (reservoirs in Helmand and Kandahar are said to be filling up) but have been less welcome in IDP and refugee camps where some families have lost their homes. UNHCR and its partners are working to alleviate the suffering of these families and distributing relief items on a caseby-case basis. In Pakistan, UNHCR has continued to distribute tents, food, coal and blankets to newlyhomeless families in Baluchistan and NWFP. Operations in the Chaman and Spin Boldak areas have been badly affected by the floods, which cut all access to one of the Chaman camps. Bulldozers cleared the road, however, and full health, water and sanitation services have now been restored. In Afghanistan, UNHCR continues to focus on shelter, water and income generating activities in the rural return areas to encourage people to build up there lives there as opposed to moving to the urban areas. By the end of 2003, UNHCR plans to have built a further 60,000 shelters for returnee families. The first consignment of internationally procured timber is due to arrive in Karachi in the second week of March and should reach Afghanistan by early April. The consignment will include timber for use in 30,000 shelters in programmes run out of Gardez, Herat, Jalalabad and Mazar. Funding Under the Afghan government's 2003 Transitional Assistance Programme for Afghanistan (TAPA) announced in Oslo in December, UNHCR's budget for its Afghan repatriation and assistance programme is US$194.7 million. Of this, $156.9 million is needed to cover repatriation and reintegration costs: e.g. transport assistance, building 60,000 houses, digging wells, and monitoring the human rights situation of returnees. The remaining $37.8 million primarily covers activities in Iran and Pakistan - essentially assistance to remaining refugees. At present, UNHCR only has at its disposal around US$24 million. The lack of available resources has already prompted UNHCR to adopt a phased approach to such key programmes as water and shelter. A limited number of wells and shelters will be contracted now, while new projects will be undertaken only as funds become available. UNHCR urgently requires funds so it can make the necessary preparations for this year's repatriation operation. If those funds do not come in, it will be very difficult for the organization to carry out the activities it has told the Afghan Government and people it will do this year. 4 Donor Update 1 March 2003