UN warns Pakistan on refugee plan

Some refugees have already returned

Pakistan needs to revise a plan to repatriate 2.4 million Afghan refugees by the end of 2009, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said.

Kilian Kleinschmidt, UNHCR assistant representative in Pakistan, told the Associated Press news agency the plan was unworkable and could backfire.

Pakistan said it still hopes most of the refugees will return by the end of next year.

It says Taleban militants blamed for attacks often shelter in refugee camps.

The UNHCR has already agreed to Pakistan's plan to shut down four camps that Islamabad says pose a security threat.

Many of the refugees fled during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Most live in towns or cities, rather than camps.

Pakistan announced the plan to repatriate the refugees early in 2007, when relations with Afghanistan were particularly tense.

Repatriations are supposed to be voluntary, but many refugees say they do not want to return.

Mr Kleinschmidt told AP that the plan needed to be "revised and reviewed".

Refugees who were repatriated would likely go back to Pakistan as illegal immigrants, he said.

"It could even push a number of these returnees into the hands of militants. It could be counterproductive and really affect regional stability," he added.

But Pakistan's commissioner for Afghan refugees, Imran Zeb Khan, said his country should not have to "carry the burden" of the refugees alone, and would still try to get close to its target for 2009.

"We will give it our best shot," he said.

Millions of Afghan refugees have already returned from Pakistan, Iran and other countries since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.

Related Software By Category :