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Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Hotline 14 May 2007

(extract)

- Afghan returnee families need food, shelter

Afghanistan

Refugees from Afghanistan living in Iran are being deported by the Iranian government and are in need of basic day-to-day needs, reports the Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan office. Some 30,000 Afghan refugees, including women and children, were sent home from Iran in the last week of April alone.

"It's very important in any return... that it is orderly, gradual, and humane," notes a UN official. Living and working in Iran without formal documentation, as many as one million people are at risk of being sent back to Afghanistan, the UN estimates.

Scattered across Afghanistan's three western provinces, the returnees need food, shelter, and other basic items, and some now find themselves in areas where insecurity levels are high.

CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan and other Action by Churches Together coalition members are working with local Afghan partners to provide food and shelter relief items.