UN refugee agency sees no speedy return to southern and eastern Afghanistan

The United Nations refugee agency said today it was continuing efforts to prepare Afghan refugees for the winter despite withdrawing international staff from southern and eastern border regions after the murder of one of its workers, but it did not see a speedy resumption of full operations without an improvement in security.

"We are taking different measures to keep our programmes going, but full re-deployment of staff and full resumption of all operations, which require unimpeded field access, are not foreseen in the near future unless measures are taken to improve security along the border," UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman Maki Shinohara told a news briefing in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The agency recently sent teams to Kandahar and Jalalabad to assess the security situation in the southern and eastern areas.

In Kabul, UNHCR and the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation have completed the distribution of winter items to some 1,000 displaced families squatting in nine public buildings and four tent sites.

The agency has also started delivering emergency supplies elsewhere and is standing by with items for more than 47,000 returnees or displaced Afghans who may need them this season. Housing projects are also underway, with 34,000 homes built so far for some 272,000 Afghan returnees. Another 16,000 shelters are near completion.

Since 2002, UNHCR has helped 600,000 returnees rebuild their homes by providing roof timbers, doors and window frames. It has also helped construct more than 6,000 wells and water points.

The agency withdrew some 30 international staff from southern and eastern Afghanistan last month after Bettina Goislard, a 29-year-old French national working for UNHCR, was shot dead while travelling in a clearly marked agency vehicle through the centre of Ghazni city by gunmen who pulled up on a motorcycle and opened fire.