U.N. Suspends Repatriation Of Afghan Refugees

Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has temporarily suspended the repatriation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan through Peshawar because of concerns over security.

A spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Nilab Mobarez, told a press conference in the capital, Kabul on Monday that the UNHCR-assisted voluntary return operation had been suspended because of security considerations in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar.

Mobarez said these concerns had compelled UNHCR to close down the encashment Centre in Jalalabad that assists Afghans returning from Pakistan, according to a U.N. press statement.

There are some two million registered Afghans in Pakistan and approximately one million in Iran. The UNHCR says it expects between 150,000 and 200,000 Afghans to return from Pakistan this year - similar to the amount of people who returned in 2005 and 2006.