No forced return of Afghans from flood-hit Pakistan: UN

AZAKHEL: The head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, called Thursday for more global relief to help Pakistan after catastrophic floods and ruled out any forced repatriation of Afghans.

Pakistan is home to 1.7 million Afghan refugees —1.5 million of whom live in areas affected by the country's worst humanitarian disaster, which has affected up to 21 million people overall and hit terrain the size of England.

“The government of Pakistan has guaranteed that despite this tragedy Pakistan will not force these refugees to go back to Afghanistan,” Guterres said after meeting elders from the devastated northwestern village of Azakhel.

Azakhel is the largest Afghan refugee camp that the floods destroyed. It had a population of 22,000 people, who lost everything, a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official said.

“Some Afghan families wanted to go back and we will support their repatriation, but nobody will be forced to go back to Afghanistan,” Guterres told reporters.

Guterres said the floods destroyed 16 Afghan refugee villages in Pakistan and that 15 will be rebuilt. But he said there were “doubts” about Azakhel because of its “dangerous location”.

“Pakistan government has already warned that possible flood can again create problem in the area,” Guterres told village elders.

“UNHCR will do everything to support the people if this Afghan refugee camp is to be relocated.”

The refugee agency chief praised Pakistan for hosting such a large number of Afghans for nearly three decades -- an exodus precipitated by the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and called for more global support for Pakistan.
“International community needs to show similar generosity with Pakistan by extending maximum possible help and support,” said Guterres, adding that Pakistanis were facing an “unprecedented crisis”.

Village elders said their children wanted to return to Azakhel.

“We want to come back to the village. Our children want to come back because we have deep associations with it as we have been living here for the past 30 years,” village representative Sharaft Hussain told Guterres.

Nearly two months after the floods first struck, Azakhel is still a wreckage of flattened mud-bricked houses and rubble. Stagnant flood water emitted a foul smell, an AFP reporter said.