Everything about Afghan Refugees totally explained
Afghan refugees (known as
Muhajir Afghans in
South Asia) are people who fled
Afghanistan after the
Soviet invasion in
1979 and during the
civil war that followed. Since the early
1980s, approximately 3 million Afghan
refugees were settled in
Pakistan and about two million in
Iran. Many of them also made their way into the
European Union,
North America,
Australia,
India,
Turkey, and other parts of the world.
After
September 11, 2001, when the
United States Military and
NATO forces were preparing for war with the
Taliban in Afghanistan, a further million or so Afghans fled their country to evade possible
US-NATO bombardment. By the end of 2001, there were approximately 5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, which included the numbers who were born in that country during the past 20 years. At the same time there were about 2.4 million Afghans staying or living in Iran, which totaled to 7.4 million in both countries.
Since early 2002, more than 4.5 million Afghan refugees have been repatriated through the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from both Pakistan and Iran back to their native country, Afghanistan. As of late 2006, there were little less than 2.4 million Afghan refugees remaining in Pakistan and 920,000 in Iran.
In October 2007, Afghanistan's parliament, "in an
open letter", urged the government of Iran to halt
deportation of Afghan refugees until the winter ends. The following month, in November 2007, UNHCR's country representative
Salvatore Lombardo and
UNAMA's press officer Dr.
Nilab Mubarez announced a delay of the voluntary repatriation process of Afghan refugees from Pakistan due to the annual winter break. More than 350,000 refugees were repatriated from Pakistan in 2007, which leaves the remaining numbers in that country at about 2 million. The repatriation process took place between the first of March and 31st of October 2007, with each person receiving a travel package of about 100
US dollars.
Approximately 80% of the refugees who arrived from Pakistan were those that were living in
North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 13% were from
Balochistan, 3% from
Sindh, and the remaining 4% from
Punjab and Pakistan's capital city,
Islamabad. The main provinces to where they returned in Afghanistan in 2007 were
Nangarhar (57% returnees),
Laghman (6.5%),
Kabul (6%),
Kandahar (4.4%),
Kunduz and
Ghazni (3.7% each). In 2006, Kabul was the top province for returnees, followed by Nangarhar, Kunduz,
Logar and
Paktia.
Unless their stay is extended due to further instability in Afghanistan, the remaining refugees are expected to leave Pakistan gradually before December 2009. Families that return to Afghanistan, on production of repatriation documents issued by the UNHCR, will be provided free plots by the
Government of Afghanistan to build new homes.
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