The Afghan repatriation program has been suspended for the winter and will start up again in March, the United Nations said today. The UN notes that more than 275,000 Afghan refugees have returned home, almost all of them from Pakistan.
…over 5 million people have returned to Afghanistan since 2002, representing a 20 per cent increase in the country’s overall population. Some 4.3 million of them were assisted through UNHCR’s voluntary repatriation programme for Afghan refugees, the world’s largest for the past six years.
“I think it is very clear to everybody that an increase in a population with a refugee return programme of that dimension would represent a very sharp challenge for even a Western industrialized country. We are certainly not aware, in recent history, of any country that has absorbed so many people in such a short time,” [said Ewen MacLeod, Acting Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Afghanistan]
By comparison, I should note, Canada lets in less than 250,000 immigrants every year.
… return and reintegration in Afghanistan will become more challenging. The returnees face many difficulties, including lack of job opportunities, shelter and basic services such as health care and education. “In order to create sufficient employment opportunities the economy has to grow at a quicker pace to absorb more workers in labour markets,” Macleod stated.
The UN notes that refugees are not returning because of “pull” factors that draw them back to Afghanistan. Rather, the UN believes a combination of factors are “pushing” refugees out of Pakistan and back to Afghanistan:
…the high prices of food and fuel which have strongly impacted Pakistan’s economy, the closure of the large Jalozai refugee camp in the Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and the “changing” security situation in Pakistan, particularly in NWFP, where the majority of Afghan refugees live.