'Induced' pressure leading Afghans to flood back from Iran, UN refugee agency says

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said it was alarmed at the sudden increase in the number of Afghans returning from Iran, which the agency attributed to “induced” pressure by authorities there.

The agency's staff in Herat were scrambling to help a flood of Afghans - nearly 3,000 people crossing the Dogharoun border - who left Iran on Sunday, a spokesperson for the agency said in Kabul.

During the first week of August, almost 10,000 returnees left Iran, a steep jump from a weekly average of 6,500 people, spokesperson Maki Shinohara said at a press briefing on Sunday.

"While we welcome Afghans returning voluntarily, many families who returned from Iran last week told UNHCR staff that they decided to return because of the pressure to leave," Ms. Shinohara said. "Some say their children were rejected from registering for the new school year in Iran."

Returnees told UNHCR that Iranian authorities informed them that to be eligible for return assistance, they must obtain exit visas and leave by 11 August, the spokesperson said. But UNHCR confirmed this morning that the deadline had been extended indefinitely. The UN refugee agency insisted that documented and undocumented Afghan nationals in Iran were entitled to return assistance whenever they repatriate.

"Premature, forced or induced returns at this time will not be sustainable and may lead to a reversal of movement in the future," Ms. Shinohara warned. "We consider that it is in the interest of the asylum countries to ensure that the refugees themselves are willing and are prepared mentally to return to face the initial reintegration phase."

Since April, UNHCR has helped about 124,500 Afghan returnees. Aid agencies have been helping nearly 1.5 million returnees, many of whom are rebuilding their lives in areas fraught with drought, devastation and violence.