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Fake Afghan Refugees Dry Up UN Funds - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum
Fake Afghan Refugees Dry Up UN Funds
Associated Press
June 17, 2002Growing numbers of Afghans are submitting fraudulent refugee claims in what is seen as an organized scheme involving officials both inside and outside the country that is drying up U.N. assistance for the neediest.
An estimated 10,000 people, or 10 percent of the nearly 100,000 people who have come through one southern Afghan way station since mid-March, have been rejected for assistance, said Monica Sandri, an official with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the southern city of Kandahar. The large number of bogus cases are straining a system that is rapidly running out of money. Two other aid agencies -- the U.N. World Food Program and the International Organization for Migration -- have already said shortfalls threaten to curtail their programs.
"They are drawing on the resources of the organization and taking money from real refugees. This is a serious problem and it has to stop," Sandri said Friday.
Though the money given to assist refugees is relatively small -- in this poor nation, it is a small fortune to those who get the help.
A family of five -- two parents and three children -- can receive as much as $110 for a trip to nearby Kandahar and 336 pounds of food, enough for three months.
Fake refugees allegedly pocket the money and sell the food for a tidy profit in a country where some people make as little as $10 a month.
"It's very lucrative if you go two or three times," Sandri said. One man, officials said, was arrested by local police recently on his third trip.
UNHCR officials are openly discussing the possibility that a well-organized scam is being run from neighboring Pakistan with the collusion of some officials. Aid officials say most of the fake refugees are either people living permanently in Pakistan, local Afghan residents posing as returnees, or even Pakistanis posing as Afghans.
"It's a very well organized system in Pakistan. They have started doing it as a profession," Sandri said. "Pakistan should take action to stop this .... The only place it can be controlled is Pakistan. They have to stop this at the start. We can't do it here."
Flood of returnees
Aid officials are expecting an increase in Afghan returnees with the election this week of Hamid Karzai as head of the state, and the promise of stability for the first time in more than two decades. Pakistan was host to 2 million Afghan refugees during the past 23 years of war, while Iran had 1.5 million. More than 650,000 people have returned from Pakistan since March, the UNHCR said.
About 75,000 Afghans have returned from other countries. The returns have forced the UNHCR to revise its estimates for the year to 2 million returnees, almost double the previous forecast of 1.25 million.
The increase has seriously drained UNHCR resources, and with a shortfall in donations, the program providing relocation funds may be among the first cuts. Though the problem persists in other parts of Afghanistan, UNHCR officials said Takht-e-Pul has been the worst hit.
Fake refugees began showing up at this way station near the Pakistani border about a month ago. Hundreds are rejected by U.N. officials everyday.
"It began to grow and it's getting larger. It has to be stopped. On one day of 900 families, 100 were rejected because of this," said Sandri.
Con artists
According to aid officials, verification documents can be forged, purchased, or even reused. Children and families can be rented. People arranging the scam are also thought to take a cut, as do some drivers. On a recent day, UNHCR field assistant Zia Ahmad Karimi was methodically sorting the luggage of eight families, with more than 40 people, who had just arrived on a truck from Pakistan. He has a personal stake in doing his job well.
"I lost my parents and four brothers in the wars. I was a refugee in Pakistan. I know what suffering is. They are taking money away from real refugees," said Karimi.
As an added deterrent, refugees are told the money will be given at their destination. If they pass muster, they have their paper stamped and are given money.
"This weeds out cheaters who realize they can't get all the money until another very long drive," Karimi said.
To cloud background questions, many alleged fakes claim they fled during the recent U.S.-led bombing campaign.
"We try to close all the doors, and they open another. It never ends," said another U.N. assistant Mehmood Samadi.
A group of three burqa-clad widows arriving in a pickup truck without luggage was rejected on the spot.
"I was rejected because they said I didn't have enough luggage. During the American bombing, my house was destroyed, my husband was killed and then I went to Pakistan," said Sultan Bibi, 50.
"Why don't you help a widow and orphans? Instead you pay to this family who has a man," she screamed.
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