UNHCR helped return 0.384 million Afghan refugees

The UN refugee agency has assisted nearly 0.384 million Afghan refugees in repatriating from Pakistan during 2004. Currently repatriation process has been suspended due to inclement weather in the war-torn Afghanistan till March 2005. According to the UNHCR annual report, nearly 3,84,000 Afghans have returned home during the third year of assisted voluntary repatriation from Pakistan.
For the third successive year, the assisted repatriation to Afghanistan from Pakistan was the largest anywhere in the world.
Although dwarfed by the overwhelming numbers of 2002, when the UNHCR helped nearly 1.6 million Afghans return from Pakistan, the 3,84,000, who went home in 2004, exceeded the 3,43,000 Afghans, who were repatriated in 2003.
The major number, 51 percent of the total, came from the NWFP -followed by 31 percent from Sindh, where a large Afghan group surviving on work in the brick kilns near the city of Hyderabad, returned. The remaining 18 percent of the groups returned from Balochistan.
As province-wise details, 1,87,670 individuals repatriated from the NWFP, 35,978 from Sindh, 34,798 from Punjab and 1,24,278 refugees returned from Balochistan.
The pattern of the repatriation has varied each year and 2004 was no exception. Unlike 2003, when there was a steady build-up in repatriation that then continued well into September, the numbers returning in the latest year were sharply higher early in the year but then fell bellow in 2003 level.
Security concerns complicated repatriation operations, disrupting field operations on a number of occasions and even forcing the temporary suspension of all work in Balochistan for a period in June.
Repatriation was also suspended during the final stages of the successful presidential election in Afghanistan to avoid complicating the registration of voters and the out-of-country voting by Afghans inside Pakistan.
A continuing campaign by the Pakistan armed forces against militants in South Waziristan, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which border Afghanistan, prevented the UN agency staff from operating in that area through-out the year.
However, the UNHCR was able to offer repatriation assistance to refugees in South Waziristan, who left the tribal agency, and urged the GoP to make available alternative locations within the Fata for those opting to relocate inside Pakistan.
Despite the disruptions, the repatriation total for the year was higher than in 2003-falling just short of the 4,00,000 planning figure used by the UNHCR.