UNHCR “BETRAYED AND ABANDONED” AFGHAN REFUGEES: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

Agence France Presse

16 November 1999

NEW DELHI, 16 November 1999 -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has left some 60,000 Afghan emigres in the lurch in New Delhi by cutting off payments and support, an Indian rights group said Tuesday.

The South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre said in a report on Afghan refugees in India the UNHCR had "betrayed and abandoned" the exiles through its "heavy-handed and partisan" approach.

"There seems to also be a political agenda here. The UNHCR has money for Kosovo and Rwanda and anything else that makes it on the CNN news bulletin but nothing for Afghan, Myanmar or Bhutanese refugees," Ravi Nair, the chief of the rights body said.

"The Indian government has surrendered part of its sovereignty by allowing the UNHCR to determine who is a refugee and who is not," he said.

According to Nair, there are 60,000 Afghan refugees in India, all of whom are required by law to live in the Indian capital. He said only 16,000 "possessed certificates issued by the UNHCR."

The study said the UNHCR had slashed its subsistence rolls from 12,000 Afghan families at the end of 1994 to 1,500 families in 1998. The monthly stipend is 1,400 rupees (32 dollars) a month.

The report said the UNHCR had "opaque procedures for much-coveted sponsorships for resettlement to western countries."

The UNCHR, meanwhile, said it could not comment on the report as the chief of mission, Augustine Mahiga, was overseas.

Nair said the plight of the refugees was exemplified by the case of Jabsar (Eds: one name), a general in the Soviet-backed government of executed former president Najibullah.

"He has been sitting on a hunger strike outside the UNHCR office here for more than 10 days to be accorded refugee status. Till now there has been no response either from the Indian government or UNHCR."

Nair alleged part of the apathy stemmed from the fact the Cold War had ended.

"UNHCR has a definite animus against the Afghan refugees. They were chic earlier. It was fashionable for the UNCHR during the Cold War to use their plight to belittle Soviet Russia but all that is no longer relevant."

Nair said the refugees' plight was exacerbated by a two-month war earlier this year between Indian troops and Pakistan-backed militia, comprising a large number of Afghan mercenaries in the northern state of Kashmir.

He said the conflict, which claimed the lives of some 400 Indian soldiers, had also turned Indian public opinion against the Afghan refugees.

"We have to create a support system for them. They cannot work legally and are grossly underpaid. Most work as street vendors although the majority of them were engineers, bureaucrats and senior people in their native country."

India is home to some 200,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Sudan.