Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
UN Relief Agency Says it's Nearly Out of Cash - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum
UN Relief Agency Says it's Nearly Out of Cash
By Kathy Gannon
Associated Press
June 10, 2002With a shortfall in donations, the UN refugee agency's operation in Afghanistan will be broke within a month, it says, left with little more than promises of peace to give hundreds of thousands of people returning to their war-shattered homeland.
Yusuf Hassan, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said yesterday that nearly 1 million refugees have returned from neighboring Pakistan and Iran in less than four months, straining resources to the point of bankruptcy.
The refugee agency had asked for $271 million to get through the year to cover the expected return of 800,000 refugees. That figure already has been surpassed, and the international community has given only $180 million.
Without more donations, Hassan said, ''We might be forced to make some hard choices, including stopping assistance to returning refugees.''
The agency gives returning refugees cash - the amount depends on where they live - and food.
Hassan said at a regular UN news conference that the agency also budgeted $40 million to build as many as 96,000 housing units for the most needy. Many would be built in Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan, and north of Kabul on the Shamali Plain, heavily damaged during fighting between the Taliban and its northern-based opposition.
''There is a real need to get these done during the summer before winter sets in,'' he said.
The agency isn't the first to complain of rapidly diminishing funds.
The UN World Food Program said its food-delivery pipeline has been threatened by funding shortfalls. Last weekend, the International Organization for Migration announced suspension of its transportation network to return refugees to their hometowns.
Refugees at transit points in eastern Afghanistan said they were returning home because of the massive international attention their homeland was suddenly receiving.
''Now we think that maybe there will be peace and there will be opportunities for jobs with all the foreign people who are here now,'' said Hamid Shah, who was returning to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan from Pakistan, where he has lived for two years.
Hassan said there have been some incidents of host countries forcing Afghans home. The UN lodged a complaint with Pakistan over reports of harassment and intimidation being used to pressure Afghans to leave. Iran also was accused of forced repatriation earlier this year and in 2001.
Hassan said the two countries' impatience is not unexpected given that they have hosted the world's largest refugee population for more than two decades.
''The number that have not come back voluntarily are not that large,'' he said.
The UN as a whole requested $1.8 billion for Afghanistan between October 2001 and December of this year. So far, its agencies have received $870 million - 48 percent of its appeal.
More Information on UN Finance
More Information on UN Programmes, Funds and Specialized Agencies
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
