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Afghan Refugees Return to Unlivable Rural Conditions
Monday, July 15, 2002
(2:15 AM)
The Associated Press

Mir says "a family without a home is nothing, so we decided to come."

PULI SOFIAN, Afghanistan -- AP
After seven years in exile, Ghan Mir couldn't wait to get back to his home in the lush Shomali Valley, set among olive trees and grape vineyards.

But when Mir unloaded his wife and seven children from a bus that drove him from Pakistan two weeks ago, he couldn't believe his eyes: the sprawling walled compound he once owned is now a bombed-out shell standing in a pale dusty desert -- in the middle of a minefield.

Speed of return a surprise
"Look at my hair," Mir, who puts his age between 55 and 60, said. "It has gone white when I saw it. I don't know what to do. How to live? How to feed my family?"

In what seems like a humanitarian disaster in the making, 1.2 million Afghan refugees streamed back to their homes from Pakistan and other neighboring countries after Taliban rule collapsed in November.

It is the fastest voluntary refugee influx in the history of mankind, U.N. officials say. The speed and scope caught international relief agencies by surprise.

Original U.N. estimates were that 800,000 Afghans -- of some 4 million living abroad -- would return this year. Based on those estimates, donors contributed $205 million to feed and supply the refugees with basics to rebuild their homes, but that was $66 million short of what the agencies estimated they would need.

With revised estimates saying some 2 million refugees are likely to return this year, U.N. officials are fearing the worst.
(More: The Billings Gazette News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan