Select Committee on International Development Minutes of Evidence


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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