02/28/2002
Afghanistan/Pakistan 2002

Azima is a 35-year-old mother of nine. Looking at her wrinkled and tan face, one would guess that she is closer to fifty. Her life has been difficult, moving from Afghanistan to Pakistan to flee fighting in her hometown in the province Badakshan, and then struggling to raise her children as refugees in Pakistan’s Chittral Mountains. Shortly after October seventh, when U.S. bombing began in Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities started arresting men in her neighborhood. More than one hundred men of her Tajik ethnic group were reportedly arrested for supporting the pro-American Northern Alliance, even though the Pakistanis were U.S. allies. Rumors circulated that while in jail, their ears and noses were cut off.

With great reluctance, Azima’s husband sold most of their belongings to pay for their return to Afghanistan. With their few remaining blankets and cooking pots, they made their way back to their homeland. Unfortunately, snow blocked the roads and the group of 21 families had to return to Kabul to wait out the winter. They asked UNHCR to help them, but assistance was not forthcoming. UNHCR informed the group that they could only help them in their place of origin. The Afghan Commissioner for Repatriation was more helpful. He offered a ”Guest House” where the families could stay until the roads cleared for their return.

When Refugees International interviewed this group of returnees, they had been in Kabul for about three weeks. The representative of the group explained, “Our situation is terrible here, but we are happy to finally be at home in our country.” In a city in which two-thirds of the buildings have been destroyed, the families had no choice but to move into the crumbling structure, in which gaping holes substituted for windows and doorways. Returnee families will wait here until the road to Badakshan opens. Many Kabul residents have to contend with these dismal conditions on a daily basis, and most returnees will arrive in Afghanistan and find a similar situation awaiting them—no shelter, no way to earn a living, no schools, and no medical care. An NGO had provided the families with a small amount of food and two blankets per family, but the food had long since been eaten.

The representative of the families pointed to a young man just barely a teenager. “His father died just yesterday,” he explained, leaving behind Azima and their nine children. “We had no money to even bury him. We borrowed a shovel from a British soldier to dig his grave.” Azima squatted on the concrete floor of her cubicle clutching a coughing baby against her breast. “What am I going to do now? I have all these children. How am I going to feed them?” she sobbed. “My poor husband died from the cold right here, in this terrible place.”

NGOs and UN agencies are clearly overwhelmed by the massive needs already existing in Afghanistan. UNHCR is beginning its voluntary repatriation program next week, and increasing numbers of returnees will further stretch the capacity of NGOs to provide basic services. There were 87 returnees at the “Guest House” in Kabul, a drop in the water compared to the 800,000 that UNHCR is planning on repatriating from Pakistan and Iran this year.

Refugees International supports the principle of voluntary return, but RI is increasingly concerned that conditions for voluntary return, namely security and assistance, will not be met and that large-scale returns may not be in the best interest of Afghans or Afghanistan at this time. RI will continue to monitor the situation of returnees in upcoming missions.