AFGHANISTAN: Returnees should return to their provinces

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KABUL, 28 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Returnees to Afghanistan from both Pakistan and Iran will only get land for shelters in their province of origin, the government announced on Wednesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"In order to reduce crowding here in the capital and provide equal reconstruction opportunities to all provinces across the country, the government will soon implement the plan of providing land for shelter for returnees in their own related provinces," Hafiz Nadeem, public information officer for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR), said, adding one of the major problems causing slow repatriation was the lack of shelter.

Lack of shelter remains a key issue in Afghanistan as millions of returned refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) slowly seek to pick up their lives, only to find their villages and homes destroyed.

Since the Taliban were ousted in December 2001, rent prices in the capital have skyrocketed, fuelled in part by the arrival in strength of foreign NGOs, with an average family house now going for up to US $800 per month - far beyond the reach of Kabul residents.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has praised the government's plan. Nader Farhad, spokesman for UNHCR in Kabul, said the plan would further accelerate the repatriation process from the neighbouring countries, adding the United Nations was encouraging returnees to go back to their own provinces.

But a large number of returned refugees suffering from unemployment, a severe lack of shelter, and poverty, prefer to live in the capital, knowing that they will not find work opportunities if they return to their place of origin.

"The government’s decision is not reasonable because we cannot find work outside the capital," said 25-year-old Mohammad Fardeen of Parwan province, who returned from Iran and is living in a dusty shell of a battle-scarred building in the Dehmazang area of Kabul.

"If the government provides work opportunities in provinces than it is a good decision. Unemployment is worse than the lack of shelter," complained 46-year-old Abdullah of Panjshir, representative of refugees in Dehmazang.

Meanwhile, to tackle the problem of lack of shelter, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs is planning to build accommodation for at least 1 million vulnerable Afghan women across the country, with an agreement signed with a German construction company to launch the countrywide project.

According to UNHCR, the number of Afghans seeking assistance to return home this year surpassed 400,000 and now stands at just under 3.5 million. Since 2002, including those who have returned without assistance, the overall total has now reached 4.2 million, according to the UN refugee agency.

[ENDS]