Examination of Witnesses(Questions 80-81)
MR CHRIS
AUSTIN, MR
TOM PHILLIPS
AND MS
JAN THOMPSON
TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2002
80. I have myself. What you said about neighbouring
countries, we were told that there was no pressure from Pakistan
but there is pressure from Iran, and last year when we were in
Pakistan and visited some of the refugee camps there were tens
of thousands of refugees there. If they all decided to come home
at the same time, I do not know what the pace of movement is or
what arrangements you have made or what talks you have had with
Pakistan and Iran, in particular about the flow of refugees across
the borders, we got the impression that it was a problem.
(Mr Phillips) I think this is largely for UNHCR to
take a lead role, as it were, in co-ordinating things, or trying
to. I was in Peshawar recently trying to get a handle on the flow
back from Pakistan and it is clear it has been massive. I find
that very, very moving. I know there are lots of problems when
people get there but it is voting with their feet to go back and
it is an enormous vote of confidence in the Transitional Administration,
although it is also an enormous strain.
81. Is it not true that some people have gone
back as well?
(Mr Phillips) I think the numbers are still pretty
small and there are stories about them trying to get two loads
of international help for going back. There are all sorts of other
angles to that, but as far as I could work out the numbers were
small of those trying to cross back. In Iran—and I have
not been there yet, I will be going in December and it is one
of the subjects I will be talking about while I am there—I
think they have a tripartite agreement with UNHCR and Afghanistan.
I do not know the detail of that agreement yet, but that is where
I would look to see if that is being properly implemented. I am
not aware of any such problem.
(Mr Austin) We would hope to get an update of the
situation on refugees and on emergency support when the consolidated
appeal, which is now called the TAPA—I am afraid I cannot
remember what that stands for, but it is the consolidated appeal
for Afghanistan now within the national development framework—is
completed in early December, at the last meeting of the Afghan
support group and we will get more information there about UNHCR's
current assessment of the situation and the extent to which it
is manageable from their point of view. We have been supporting
UNHCR's efforts in Afghanistan for some time and we will be wanting
to see how well it is progressing and what needs to happen next.
Chairman: Thank you. We have covered
a pretty broad canvas this morning and we are very grateful to
you for your detailed answers and, as you say, some of those answers
themselves raise a number of questions which I suspect will only
be resolved over a period of time. Thank you very much for your
help this morning.
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