195 families leave for Afghanistan as repatriation process resumes

PESHAWAR: A total of 195 Afghan families left for their homeland on the first day of the resumption of the repatriation process of registered refugees to Afghanistan, an official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday.

A spokesman for the UNHCR, Samad Khan, told The News that all arrangements had been made for the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees at the Chamkani centre located on the outskirts of Peshawar.

He said the refugees were being sent back to Afghanistan via the Torkham border after deregistration. “The cash amount has been reduced from 400 US dollars to 200 dollars per head this time to continue the repatriation process for a longer time,” he added.

Many Afghan refugees at the Chamkani centre and elsewhere expressed dissatisfaction over the UNHCR decision to reduce the cash compensation amount. They said that transportation and resettlement would cost them more once they entered Afghanistan.

The UNHCR spokesman said basic facilities like drinking water, medical help, shade and proper guidance and information were being provided to the intending returnees inside the Chamkani centre while cash amount was being provided to them upon reaching Nangarhar province in Afghanistan.

Hazrat Wali, an elderly Afghan refugee, told The News that he and his family had spent more than 30 years in Pakistan where he had lived a respectable life. He alleged that now the police and other government institutions were harassing them.

"I am so happy to go back to my hometown Kunduz in Afghanistan, but at the same time I am worried about my resettlement and source of livelihood there," he added. The UNHCR has resumed its voluntary repatriation process in Pakistan after four months at its two centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Balochistan.

The process was suspended from December 1, 2016 till February 2017 due to the harsh weather conditions during the winter. However, the suspension of the repatriation process continued for one more month due to other factors such as the closure of the border by Pakistan in the aftermath of a series of terrorist attacks in all the four provinces of the country.

According to UNHCR data, more than 85,000 registered Afghan refugees' families had gone back till last year under voluntary repatriation programme.