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South and Central Asia: Afghanistan's Neighbors Shut Doors to Refugees in 2001;
Fail to Provide Adequate Assistance to Return in 2002
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Afghan refugees and displaced persons, the victims first of Taliban persecution and then of the fighting and bombing to oust the Taliban, have been a largely ignored afterthought in the international community’s “Great Game” of war and politics played out in and around their country, according to the World Refugee Survey 2002, a new annual report published today by the U.S. Committee for Refugees.
The World Refugee Survey documents the closing of borders by Pakistan, Iran, and other neighboring countries, as fighting and bombing intensified in late 2001. Many were trapped in dangerous border camps along the Iranian and Pakistani frontiers, and the United States and other allied countries put no pressure on Afghanistan’s neighbors to provide even temporary refuge for those desperately seeking safety. Those who managed to elude border controls in Pakistan were transferred to camps situated in harsh, unsafe locations near the Afghan border.
Already host to more refugees than any other country in the world, Iran also closed its border to thousands of Afghans attempting to enter the country. Although Iran set up camps for would-be refugees across the border in Afghanistan, the camps were overcrowded and lacked adequate resources.
By the end of 2001, Afghans representing the world’s largest population of uprooted people (the combination of refugees and internally displaced persons). Some 4.5 million Afghans were refugees in other countries, mostly Pakistan and Iran; another 1 million Afghans were displaced within Afghanistan.
Midway through 2002, however, more than half a million Afghan refugees had returned. Hundreds of thousands more appeared willing to return, but international donors were not keeping pace with the repatriation and reintegration costs, calling into question the sustainability of the returns. As of mid-May 2002, only $171 million of UNHCR’s Afghan repatriation budget of $271 million for the year had been met, undermining UNHCR’s ability to facilitate return for an anticipated 850,000 Afghans this year.
“For the past 23 years, continuing through the ebb and flow of crisis and stalemate, the international community has failed to pay adequate attention to the victims of international and local power games in Afghanistan—the refugees and the internally displaced,” said Bill Frelick, editor of the World Refugee Survey. “Now, finally, the international community has an opportunity to promote and facilitate repatriation and reintegration, and to end this long and sorry chapter. Let us hope that the international community, led by the United States, will not squander this opportunity to end the misery and bring stability to this corner of the globe.”
The World Refugee Survey 2002 contains reports on refugee situations in 12 South and Central Asian countries. The 290-page annual report reviews refugee conditions and government policies affecting refugees and displaced persons in 133 countries worldwide.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that works for the protection and assistance of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons around the world.