Afghans go home, but refugee legacy burdens Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27 (Reuters) Nearly 135,000 Afghan refugees have returned home from Pakistan this year, despite the worst violence since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, aid agency officials said today.

Although it is the biggest repatriation of refugees anywhere in the world in 2006, it marks a sharp slowdown from the mass movements seen in the previous four years, when optimism generated by elections persuaded many Afghans to go home.

''Something like 4 million refugees were repatriated, but still the problem emerges as it was before,'' Sajid Hussain Chatta, secretary at Pakistan's Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, said today.

Nearly 3 million Afghans are still living in Pakistan, and there is little chance of them going home soon.

Pakistan, along with Iran, have been saddled with the problem since the 1980s, when Afghans fled their homeland to escape the war against the Soviet occupation.

They never returned because of the violence that racked their country for years afterwards and because there were better chances of making a living in Pakistan or Iran.

The Pakistani government, UN agencies, and a core group of aid organisations are seeking to prioritise the needs of Pakistan's refugee-affected areas ahead of a donor conference Chatta expects to be held in 2007.

Addressing a meeting in Islamabad, the Pakistani official spoke of the economic and environmental cost of hosting such a huge refugee population.

With other humanitarian crises to handle, notably those in Darfur and Congo, finding funds for the Afghans living in Pakistan has become harder.

Because the Afghans have stayed longer than anyone foresaw, what began as a a humanitarian problem has become increasingly a development issue -- reflected by high illiteracy rates, inadequate water and sanitation, and poor access to healthcare.

Almost half of the Afghans in Pakistan are under 18, raising the prospect of a third generation being born during coming years as the children of refugees have children themselves. Families that came with 12 members now might number 60.

Less than half of them live in camps, and many families living in urban areas have put down roots.

Jalozai camp, near the city of Peshawar, houses 110,000 people and now looks more like a small town than a temporary refugee settlement.

This year, the government had wanted to close four camps, but for several reasons, including a reluctance to use force, backed off from carrying out its plan.

REUTERS PB VC1916