50,000 Returning Refugees Benefit from UN Shelter
New York, Oct 26 2009 5:10PM
The United Nations
refugee agency has nearly completed its shelter programme
for more than 50,000 of the most vulnerable Afghan returnees
this year, bringing to some 1.2 million those who have
benefited since the re-integration project started in
2002.
This represents about 25 per cent of the more
than 4.3 million Afghans assisted home by the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home)
since the United States-led ouster of the Taliban regime at
the end of 2001 – 3.4 million from Pakistan and over
865,000 from Iran.
Of the more than 8,000 shelters
planned in 2009, some 7,000 beneficiary families have been
selected and construction is continuing, UN Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan (<http://unama.unmissions.org/default.aspx)
spokesman Aleem Siddique told a news conference in Kabul,
the capital, today.
“As in previous years, UNHCR
shelters in 2009 are implemented in provinces of high return
and for those who are the most vulnerable among returnees
and internally displaced persons (IDPs),” he said.
“Getting shelter is one of the most pressing needs of
returning refugees, along with land, jobs and security.
Recognizing this, UNHCR has allocated a significant part of
its budget to its shelter programme.”
UNHCR’s
re-integration programme will continue for the next two
years, especially in the shelter sector. It will also
continue supporting the Government-led programme to allocate
land to landless returnees.
For more details go to UN
News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
ENDS