Afghan refugees gear up to leave for homeland

 Complain of inadequate facilities at repatriation centre

PESHAWAR: The once deserted Voluntary Repatriation Centre of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at Chamkani on the outskirts of the provincial capital is now thronged by a large number of Afghan refugees.

Trucks loaded with the luggage of the Afghan families could be seen to set off their long journey to Afghanistan. The authorities said that the number of Afghan families leaving for their homeland after a long time has drastically increased in recent months.

Standing in long queues, majority of the Afghan refugees told this scribe on Tuesday that they had reached the Voluntary Repatriation Centre at Chamkani last night.They complained that they couldn’t get their entry passes to de-register themselves for their final journey to Afghanistan.

“We reached the centre before midnight from Abbottabad and have yet to make entry into it,” said an Afghan refugee, Abdul Rahim. He claimed his family stayed under the open sky. Abdul Rahim said that he had been living in Hazara division for 32 years, but now he was compelled to leave Pakistan.

“I belong to Baghlan province in Afghanistan, where we have no land or home but still we have no other option, but to leave for our homeland,” he added.Another refugee, Awal Gul, said for lack of staff and space at the repatriation centre, the returnees had to wait for a long time with their families.

“There are no facilities of drinking water, washrooms and waiting room, where the women and children can wait during the sizzling heat or heavy rains,” he said. He added that the heavy rains on Tuesday morning damaged their belongings in the trucks.

Sitting in a wheelchair grey-bearded Hazrat Shah said that he had come from Mansehra along with his family last night, but didn’t know for how long he would wait for his turn to be de-registered.  “I am eager to go back to Afghanistan as I fear that Pakistan would no more bear the existence of Afghan refugees,” he said and added that local administration and police now treated them badly.

Nizamuddin, another Afghan refugee from Latifabad locality in Peshawar, said that though he and his family members had the proof of registration (PoR) cards, they had decided to leave for Afghanistan due to the harsh treatment of the law-enforcers towards the refugees.

An official at the repatriation centre said that the repatriation process had been expedited after the UNHCR doubled cash amount and other package for those opting for voluntary repatriation.

“Last week about 2,029 families were sent to Afghanistan. Majority of them belonged to urban areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said the official requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.  He said that on August 1, 609 families were de-registered and sent to Afghanistan via Torkham border.