A hard winter: Afghan refugees return from Pakistan

Two million more refugees are expected to return to a country mired in violence and braced for a bitter winter.

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Mir Ahmad Khan, 70, and his daughter, Fatima, three, at the UNHCR returnee processing centre in Kabul [Al Jazeera]

By

D. Parvaz

@dparvaz

Kabul, Afghanistan - Caught in the middle of political tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan are some two million Afghan refugees - registered and unregistered - who now face the option of either returning voluntarily or being deported from Pakistan.
And it couldn't happen at a worse time.
Winter in Afghanistan can be bitterly cold. The country is also experiencing a spike in violence, with increased attacks from the Taliban and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters, leading to peak levels of civilian casualties and internal displacement as people flee the fighting.

Returnees at the UNHCR processing centre get a quick lesson in defusing explosive devices [Al Jazeera]

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is also concerned about refugees returning to a country that is among the most affected by undetonated landmines - an enduring legacy of the Soviet invasion. According to the UN Mine Action Service, 1,587 communities in 257 districts across the country are affected. The UNHCR is offering returning Afghans training in how to spot and defuse a mine.

 More: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/11/hard-winter-afghan-refugees-return-pakistan-161123070304234.html



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