Afghanistan Refugee
United States – European Union Support for Afghanistan
The Afghan government, donor nations and international organizations are assisting returning refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Since the fall of the Taliban in December 2001, more than 2.2 million Afghan refugees and 600,000 IDPs have returned home, the largest refugee repatriation in the world in the last 30 years. UNHCR’s voluntary refugee repatriation program, which provides assistance to returnees, has received $105 million from the USG to fund its programs. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Relief Agencies Report Getting Aid Into Afghanistan
Bartolini reported that 500 to 1,000 refugees a day are crossing into northwest Pakistan, with spikes immediately after heavy bombing. He said problems with refugee camps include very low water tables in the region requiring drilling as deep as 1,000 feet to locate well water. Some local tribal leaders want to limit the size of camps, he said, and require that all aid coming into the camps go through them. ... People coming into "established" refugee camps to join their families are putting pressure on education and health services, added Sippi Azberbaijani-Moghaddam, technical adviser for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children based in Peshawar, Pakistan. She noted that child labor is a "big problem" in the camps. ... [Read More]
Remarks at the Strategic Consultations Convening on Refugee and Population Movements to and From Afghanistan
We are at a critical point on refugee returns and reintegration. Agreements among UNHCR, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan to allow continued protection for Afghan refugees will soon expire, while more than 2 million Afghan refugees remain in these two countries. It is crucial that we turn our attention toward identifying the characteristics and needs of the residual populations expected to remain in Pakistan and Iran. The situation on the ground is such that local settlement is a reality. ... [Read More]
Humanitarian Assistance and Refugees - US Department of State
"The Town that Loves Refugees" (PDF) ... Humanitarian Assistance and Refugees ... U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees [Read More]
U.S. Support for Afghan Women, Children, and Refugees
Refugees are returning home. Over 3 million Afghans refugees have returned to their country; about half the refugees are women and girls. ... The repatriation of Afghans since October 2001 represents a major success of the international community’s efforts. Afghan refugees have seen the results of efforts of the transitional government and international community to bring stability, peace, and prosperity to Afghanistan. According to UN estimates, almost 3 million Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland since the fall of the Taliban in December 2001, and UNHCR expects that an additional one million refugees will return to Afghanistan during 2004. In addition, approximately 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Afghanistan (out of an estimated total of 700,000) were assisted in returning to their homes or to a location of their choice during 2003; about the same number appear to have returned home on their own, bringing the total to over 650,000 since early 2002. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: U.S. Aid Flows to Afghanistan; Refugee Numbers Increase
The problem of refugees and displacement has a long history in the region. As a result of more than two decades of war in Afghanistan and recent years of drought, more than 2.5 million refugees have been in neighboring Iran and Pakistan for years. This longstanding situation could be worsened if the current UNHCR prediction comes true: As many as 1.5 million more Afghans could leave their homeland for one of the neighboring nations because of increasing violence and hardships. ... [Read More]
Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2005 -- Report to the Congress
In the 1960s and 1970s, many African countries accepted significant numbers of refugees and provided them land to cultivate. In the years since, however, large refugee outflows combined with increased pressure on land in most African countries have resulted in African refugees’ increasing confinement to refugee camps or settlements. Where some refugees had achieved de facto integration, such as in the Ivory Coast,xenophobic attacks on foreigners have recently highlighted the fragility of such informal arrangements. Few African countries have offered formal, permanent integration of refugees, although there are some exceptions. Guinea is reportedly ready to offer local integration to some Liberians who are not willing or able to return. South Africa has allowed the permanent integration of a significant number of refugees, mostly from Mozambique. While the governments of Zambia, Uganda, and Kenya have expressed an interest in providing refugees with citizenship and local integration ... [Read More]
Sudan Refugee Camps Satellite Images - US Department of State
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Response to the Refugee Crisis in Afghanistan
Afghan refugees and conflict victims have been receiving assistance from the United States since millions fled Afghanistan in 1979. In response to the recent crisis, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) has mobilized resources to support refugees through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) other UN agencies and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC), to assist victims of conflict inside Afghanistan through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and to help migrants in Afghanistan through the International Organization for Migration (IOM).Total PRM assistance pr ... [Read More]
Afghanistan (04/05)
Afghanistan has had the largest refugee repatriation in the world in the last 30 years. The return of refugees is guided by the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MORR) and supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization of Migration (IOM), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); the World Food Program (WFP); the World Health Organization (WHO) and a number of other national and international NGOs. Approximately 3.5 million Afghans remain in neighboring countries. Between January and October 2004, 740,000 individuals returned to Afghanistan under a program supported by the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Of these, 45% came from Pakistan, 53% from Iran and the rest from other countries. The US has provided more than $300 million to support Afghan refugees, returnees, and other conflict victims between September 2001 and March 2005. ... [Read More]
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