Hazara Nation

The worsening security situation, unemployment, the food crisis, drought, shelter problems and lack of socio-economic opportunities may force some Afghans who have returned to their country in the past six years to cross international borders again in search of a better life, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Refugees and Repartition (MoRR) warned.

“Returnees may re-emigrate to neighbouring countries,” Abdul Qadir Zazai, chief adviser to the MoRR, told IRIN in Kabul.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said insurgency-related violence had displaced some Afghans and forced others to cross international borders.

“Their numbers are certainly higher than in 2002-2003,” Salvatore Lombardo, the UNHCR representative in Afghanistan, told IRIN.

The warning comes amid international recognition that Afghanistan is the leading country in the world in terms of returns - with over five million refugees repatriated since 2002.

Over three million Afghan refugees have voluntarily returned home from Pakistan, about 856,000 have repatriated from Iran and over 14,700 have returned from other countries, according to the UNHCR.

At the height of the exodus, about eight million Afghans were living outside their home country, the agency said.

Poverty

Owing to decades of conflict, natural disasters and overall underdevelopment, Afghanistan’s poverty ratings are among the highest in the world. Over half of its estimated 26.6 million population live below the poverty line on less than US$1 a day.

The return of over five million refugees - although a spectacular achievement for the post-Taliban government - has exacerbated access to scare resources in the country, aid workers say.

“We all know what Afghan citizens are facing daily in their lives. Returnees are experiencing the same problems: lack of land, shelter, clean drinking water, education, access to jobs and health facilities,” Lombardo said.

Land, shelter

To tackle one of the most pressing problems of most returnees - lack of shelter - President Karzai authorised a land allocation scheme to settle landless returnees.

According to the MoRR, over 100,000 families have applied to the scheme in the past four years, but only about 10,000 have received land on which to build a home.

“We don’t know where to go and settle,” said Mohammad Hussain who has returned with his family from Pakistan.

“We’ll set up a camp somewhere in the country,” said another returnee, Hashim, at the UNHCR encashment and transition centre in Kabul where returnees stay for up to 48 hours.

A small number of those who have received land through the government scheme have their own difficulties, such as the financial inability to build their houses, their lack of a livelihood and lack of basic services such as health and education in the designated areas.

Those who return to their original homes also find it difficult to re-establish a life after years of absence.

According to the UNHCR, since 2002 it has assisted 170,000 poor returnee families to rebuild their shelters, and plans to help 10,000 more in 2008.

Millions still abroad

Despite a massive return to Afghanistan in the past six years - representing “the single largest repartition operation in UNHCR’s 58-year history” - Afghans still make up the largest refugee population in the world under the UNHCR’s care, the organisation said in a statement.

About three million Afghan refugees currently live in two neighbouring countries, Pakistan and Iran. There are also hundreds of thousands of unregistered Afghans who live and work in both countries but do not enjoy refugee status and are liable to forced deportation.

Iran deported tens of thousands of unregistered Afghans in 2007 which pushed its war-ravaged and ill-prepared neighbour into a humanitarian emergency and political crisis.

“Iranian border security has killed 15-20 individual economic migrants so far this year who wanted to enter Iran illegally,” said the MoRR’s Zazai, adding that the emigrants were wrongly labelled as “terrorists and smugglers”.

Deportations

As conflict, natural and man-made disasters, and food insecurity drive some Afghans to neighbouring countries, both Iran and Pakistan have refused to accommodate new immigrants, calling them “illegal intruders” who will be deported.

The UN says “undocumented Afghans” in Pakistan and Iran do not come under its “protection and care” and should be dealt with through domestic laws.

Iranian and Pakistani officials have repeatedly said “undocumented Afghans” are subject to arrest and deportation because they have broken the law by “illegal” entry.

Zazai said “the time has passed when Afghans could travel to Iran and Pakistan and be considered refugees”.
Read the full story

Ghazala Khan, 17, often has dreams about Kabul, the capital of neighbouring Afghanistan, where her parents grew up.
However, born to parents who reached adulthood and married in Pakistan, Ghazala is aware that Kabul is no longer what it may have been in the past, and is far from certain that she wishes to return.

"I have cousins in Kabul whom I have never met. But then I also hear that the city is still full of broken buildings, that living costs there are very high and that there is a great deal of insecurity," Ghazala told IRIN. She is torn between wishing to see the city her parents talk nostalgically of, and staying on in Peshawar, where she now has roots.

"I am going to college here. I'm not sure if I could do that in Kabul," says Ghazala. The fact that her father is Hazara, belonging to an ethnic minority group that has faced consistent discrimination in Afghanistan, most notably under the former Taliban regime, further complicates decision-making for the family.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has repatriated 3.3 million Afghans since 2002, including 120,000 from Pakistan in 2008, but some two million registered Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan. The number of unregistered refugees is unknown.

Many, like Ghazala's family, are torn between a desire to return and fears that this may place them in a perilous situation in Afghanistan, given that the economic and security situation in the country is still fragile.

"My uncle went back in 2005, but they have slipped back into Pakistan. They say things there are very grim. Now we will stay here," says Dilbaz Khan, 28. He complained of harassment by police in Peshawar, but said: "This is still better than the situation in Afghanistan."

The largest number of refugees is in the North West Frontier Province. However, as the bigger camps in the province have been shut down, some have been switched to camps in Punjab Province, in line with Pakistani government policy. The refugees have been termed a “security threat” by the government in the past.

There is also a small population of refugees in the southwestern province of Balochistan, from where returns have been slow. Only 5,000 refugees have returned from the province this year. Khalid Mahgoub, the UNHCR's field protection officer in Quetta, attributes this to the fact that “many refugees here are from southern regions of Afghanistan where the security situation has been worsening."

Kamran Arif, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist based in Peshawar, agrees. "Naturally, no refugee wants to return to an unsafe situation, and conditions in Afghanistan are often unsafe," he told IRIN.

Carpet weavers

Among the refugees who remain on in Peshawar are around 600 carpet weavers, based at the now defunct Jalozai Camp. Though the camp was closed a few weeks ago, and most of the 70,000 refugees who lived there moved back to Afghanistan, the Pakistan authorities agreed to allow the carpet weavers to stay at the camp. A programme under which these highly skilled weavers would train locals is planned.

Maqbool Shah Roghani, in charge of the repatriation process at Jalozai camp, said all the buildings at the camp, including a university hospital, had been handed over to the Peshawar district administration.

But even as refugees continue to depart, there are Afghans who seem keen to continue to live in the only place they have known as home. "I have never been outside Peshawar. It is all I know of the world," said Ghazala.

Other younger Afghans are reluctant to go back to an Afghanistan where a great deal of insecurity persists. Reports of renewed fighting in some parts of Afghanistan and the fact that they have jobs in Pakistan explain their hesitation.

It seems likely that a considerable proportion of Afghans who came to Pakistan as refugees - in a process that began in 1979 with the Soviet invasion of their country - will choose to live on here, rather than return to a homeland that remains insecure and where economic survival is uncertain, particularly at a time when rapid food price inflation has made life especially hard. Read the full story

Clashes between Kuchi nomads and ethnic Hazaras in Maydan Wadak have killed 13 people and wounded a further 30, according to a local Member of Parliament.

Both sides have blamed each other for the fighting, which started on Sunday in the province’s Behsud district.

Kuchi MP Hidar Jan Naimzoi said Hazaras launched attacks on 130 Kuchi homes with light and heavy weapons, forcing residents to flee their houses after four of their kin were killed.

But Maydan Wadak’s MP, Ismaile Safdari, said the Kuchis started the clashes, killed 13 Hazaras and wounded 30 more.

About 7,000 people have been forced to flee villages in the district, according to Sadari.

"The Kuchis attacked about 175 villages in the district in groups with weapons and people resisted with whatever they had," he said.

The Ministry of Interior has sent a delegation to investigate the alleged killings.

Kuchi MP Haji Pari said only a handful of people were creating problems in the province.

Tensions between the two ethnic groups have flared in recent months with both sides claiming ownership over land in the central Hazarajat region.

In April, Human rights workers expressed fears that Hazaras were planning to take up arms against Kuchis who settled on their land.

The Shia Hazaras, who make up 9% of the country’s population, accuse Kuchis of "land-grabbing".

"Given that both parties lack confidence in the government’s ability to solve their disputes they may try to defeat each other by violent means," Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission said in April.

Kuchis, who are predominantly Pashtuns, traditionally move all over the country in search of green pastures for their livestock and, at the start of each spring, many travel to the central provinces, where most of Afghanistan’s Hazaras live.

Kuchi elders complain that Hazaras have enjoyed strong international support since the Taliban’s fall, while Kuchis have been perceived as collaborators of the mainly Pashtun Taliban.

In July 2007, after several people were reportedly killed in clashes between Kuchi herders and Hazara settlers in Behsud district, President Karzai set up a commission to come up with a solution.

President Karzai’s deputy spokesman, Seyamk Hirawi, said: "From last year the government started some efforts to solve these problems and so far both sides have had several meetings."

Read the full story

Eleven-year-old Fatima and her nine-year-old brother, Ahmad, left school in Ghor Province, central-southern Afghanistan, to help feed their family. From dawn till dusk they scavenge for metal, bone and plastics from which they can earn about US$1 a day. Fatima told IRIN of the hardships she and her brother face:

“Early in the morning it’s difficult to wake up because I feel pain in my legs and back. Ahmed has similar complaints.

“Throughout the day we walk from place to place in search of metal, plastic bottles and bones. Sometimes we also find good food thrown out with the rubbish… we often eat it. Ahmad once got sick because he had eaten something dirty, so now we don’t eat everything but only things which are OK.

“We sell metal for 20 Afghani [40 US cents] per kilo, and bones and plastic bottles for 10 Afghani [20 cents] per kilo. We make about 40-50 Afghani on a good day.

“Our work is very hard and I feel pain all over my body… Nobody helps us. If we don’t work hard, we will die of hunger. So we have to work and earn a piece of bread for our family. We don’t have the money to visit a doctor and buy medicine.

“We didn’t do this work last year. We went to school where they gave us `ghee’ [clarified butter] and wheat [the UN World Food Programme runs several food-for-education projects across Afghanistan]. Even when they stopped the aid we continued to go to school. But as winter started and schools shut, we could not find enough to eat.

“We would love to go back to school and study again, but we can’t. I hope the government will help us and give us food so that we can go to school again.” Read the full story

Ministers from dozens of countries met in Paris on Thursday to pledge funds for Afghanistan and review their development strategy for the fragile Central Asian state.

Here are some key facts about Afghanistan:

GEOGRAPHY - Ringed by Iran, Pakistan and the central Asian states of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, landlocked Afghanistan forms part of an ancient east-west trade route and covers an area of 647,500 sq km (250,000 sq miles).
POPULATION - 32.7 million, according to July 2008 estimates.

CAPITAL - Kabul

ETHNICITY - An estimated 42 percent of the population are Pashtun, 27 percent Tajik, 9 percent Hazara, 9 percent Uzbek, and the rest Turkmen, Baluch and other minorities.

RELIGION - Sunni Muslims make up about 80 percent of the population, Shi'a Muslims about 19 percent.

LANGUAGE - Afghan Persian or Dari, which is spoken by 50 percent of the population, and Pashto, spoken by 35 percent, are the official languages. Eleven percent of the population speak Turkic languages, primarily Uzbek and Turkmen.

ECONOMY/POVERTY - Afghanistan depends on aid for 90 percent of its spending as it tries to rebuild an economy shattered by 30 years of war.

-- In spite of an infusion of international assistance following the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, it remains extremely poor. Much of the population suffers from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care and jobs.

-- As much as 53 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

-- Real GDP growth in 2007 was 7.5 percent, and per capita GDP was $1,000. Eighty percent of the workforce are employed in agriculture.

FOOD - Up to 70 percent of the population is considered to have only insecure food supplies by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, and millions have recently been pushed into "high-risk food-insecurity" by high food prices.

INFRASTRUCTURE - Only 40 percent of schools have buildings, and most primary roads need repairs.

LIFE EXPECTANCY - 43 years, compared to an average 59 years for low-income countries worldwide.

DRUGS - Around 92 per cent of the world's heroin comes from poppies grown in Afghanistan, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

SECURITY - The U.N.-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), led by NATO and some 53,000 strong, is assisting Afghan authorities in fighting a Taliban insurgency that has killed 11,000 people in the last two years alone.

-- The United States has a further 14,000 troops in Afghanistan outside ISAF, on Operation Enduring Freedom. Their mission is to pursue al Qaeda in the mountainous eastern region that borders Pakistan.

Sources: Reuters; World Bank (www.worldbank.org.af); UNODC (http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/wdr07/WDR_2007_executive_summary.pdf); CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html) For a news story on the conference, click on [ID:nL12564567] (Writing by Jijo Jacob; Editing by David Cutler) Read the full story

Afghanistan’s minority Sikhs and Hindus say they are facing increasing persecution from the government and its Islamic fundamentalist allies.

They claim widespread discrimination is threatening their rituals and traditions, and that many are now considering joining an exodus that has seen thousands leave in recent years.

“We have had too many problems, especially under the [Hamid] Karzai government,” said Ravinda Singh, who heads the Sikh section of the Hindu and Sikh Council.

“The Taliban told us we had to do all our religious ceremonies in private, but they did not stop us from doing them. It was a government that was not recognised by the world, but it was better than now,” he said.

Hinduism was widely practised in Afghanistan before the introduction of Islam in the seventh century, when a mass conversion led to the slaughter of thousands of Hindus. So overwhelming was the massacre that the mountain range was renamed Hindu Kush – meaning “Hindu slaughter”.

The Sikhs were first brought to Afghanistan from India by the British in the 19th century and together with Hindus dominated the economy. Recent violence, however, has seen thousands flee.

Although no official figures exist, community leaders estimate 5,000 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are left in the country. In this Islamic society, they are the only non-Muslims who remain in any significant numbers.

But despite being proud of their Afghan heritage, they claim they are not afforded the same respect and rights as other ethnic minorities.

Although the country’s ethnic groups are mentioned in the national anthem, Sikhs and Hindus are not. They also say they have no representatives in the government and parliament.

For them, much of the blame lies with the warlords – commonly known as “mujahideen” – who first came to dominate politics in Afghanistan in the early 1990s.

Before 1992, there were as many as 50,000 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan. But when fundamentalist militias started fighting each other on the streets of Kabul, the number began to fall drastically.

“Our problems started when the jihadis rose to power,” said Mukesh Kumar, a Hindu and father of four.

“They came here to the temple and stole all our furniture. We have another temple in the old city and they robbed that as well. They even took the marble and tiles from the floor.”

Like other members of his community, Mr Kumar was keen to stress the difference between the mujahideen and the Taliban who came after them.

“The Taliban were fine; they just didn’t let us display any icons. Sometimes they also tried to get us to pray with them,” he said.

With many of the warlords from the 1990s now holding positions in the government and parliament, the problems for Sikhs and Hindus have started once again.

Community members claim the growing lawlessness pervading Afghanistan has affected them most. They say Sikh children are bullied at school; sometimes even the boys have their turbans ripped off their heads. Adults have also been beaten, threatened and insulted.

Their biggest fear, though, is that they may no longer be able to lay their dead to rest.

In autumn, a group of protesters disrupted a cremation ceremony in the south-east of Kabul, complaining about the fumes it would let off and saying it was against Islam. Sikhs and Hindus have since been told they must carry out the ritual elsewhere.

“This is our native country and we have a special love for it, but the conditions are not fair for us,” said Dayan Singh Anjaan, 44, a pharmacist.

“This is the hardest time we have had. A century ago our grandfathers bought some land and built those high walls so we could cremate our dead.” Mr Anjaan, who served in the army of the former communist government, also pinpointed the mujahideen warlords of the 1990s as being the source of today’s unrest.

“We are very worried about our children’s future because the situation is getting worse and worse,” he said.

Haji Mohammed Yaqub Ahmadzai, first deputy at the ministry of frontier and tribal affairs, defended the government’s treatment of Sikhs and Hindus, insisting they had the same rights as Muslims.

“The problem with the crematorium is that the city is getting bigger and bigger every day,” he said. “The crematorium used to be in a deserted area, but now it isn’t and that’s not good for the surrounding environment or the health of the people who live there.”

Cremations, he said, were allowed to take place at a new site on the fringes of Kabul. Read the full story

U.S. first lady Laura Bush announced here Sunday the United States would provide 40 million U.S. dollars to the field of education in Afghanistan.

Mrs. Bush, who made a surprise visit to the war-torn country on Sunday, said at a news briefing here that this sum of money would be provided over the next five years, adding the contribution would further enable Afghans to go to school and learn skills.

A portion of the amount would go to the Kabul-based American University of Afghanistan where 300 students are currently studying in the fields of business, information technology and computer science, the U.S. first lady said.
"The United States is proud to support 16 universities in Afghanistan including the American University of Afghanistan," she said.

Laura Bush, who earlier Sunday visited Afghanistan's central province of Bamyan, also called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and exchanged views on matters pertaining mutual interests including the coming donors' conference in Paris.

Both Karzai and Mrs. Bush would be attending the conference, which will open on June 12 and where Afghanistan's achievement over the past six years and the Afghan government's national strategy for development would be discussed and evaluated. Read the full story

Last week I found myself, briefly, in the land of menace and fortified shopping malls, prestige cars and electric fences, natural beauty and violent crime. And I found myself thinking about all the South Africans migrating to Australia. For although public debate about African migration tends to focus on Sudanese refugees, many more African migrants arrive from South Africa - and they tend to be white.

"Packing for Perth" has become slang for whites leaving South Africa, so popular has Australia become as a destination. At the time of the 2006 census, there were 104,120 people in Australia who were born in South Africa. More than half had arrived since Nelson Mandela became president in 1994. And yes, they do all live in St Ives. At least, St Ives is the Sydney suburb with the highest number of South Africans, followed by Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Dover Heights and Cherrybrook.

All migrant groups develop a reputation, justified or not. The Poms whinge, the Lebanese form gangs, Chinese kids steal places in selective schools. With white South Africans, the stereotype is that they are brash and rude, condescending to anyone they perceive as inferior, especially those serving them in shops.

A South African living on the North Shore, giving advice to prospective migrants on an online forum, puts it this way: "South Africans are considered to be arrogant and pushy, and often have a difficult time adjusting to the environment. I have had CEOs commenting to me that I am 'not the typical South African, you're lovely'." She adds that South Africans used to being go-getting and entrepreneurial in the workplace will have to "tone down immensely in order to gain respect".

I have been gently asking around, trying to find out where this cultural difference comes from. Some have suggested it is simply a difference of manner, others say it is about the sense of entitlement whites developed during apartheid.

On websites devoted to this diaspora, this is evident in the recurring conversations about the difficulties of getting used to not having "domestics" and "garden boys" outside Africa. As one imminent migrant writes about Australia: "We will have to drop our standards - of that we are very certain. Just looking at the average house over there and the way in which people live - it seems a bit backward and years behind."

Though this fear of not being served by lackeys recurs, the most popular theme on the websites seems to be a genuine love for their country mixed with a feeling of being forced to leave for the sake of the safety, given the massive rates of violent crime in the country which was supposed to become a rainbow nation of peace and harmony. There are tales of carjackings, home invasions, neighbours murdered. But this is often this is described in racist terms. One expat living in Perth writes of his realisation "that you can't mix 10 parts coal with one part vanilla ice-cream, and then expect the ice-cream to remain intact".

The view of whites as civilised and blacks as violent is one I find hard to stomach, given the violent history of apartheid, which I saw briefly for myself on holiday at the age of 10, when on a train to Cape Town I saw the white policeman in the next compartment point a gun in the face of black children my own age, standing on a train platform.

But there is more to the story of South African migration than some damn rude shoppers and a few racists. The country has given us many notable citizens. The Booker and Nobel prize winning novelist J.M. Coetzee lives in Adelaide. Gene and Brian Sherman, gallery owners lauded for their commitment to contemporary art in this city, also came from South Africa. As did the lawyer Andrea Durbach, who directs the Australasian Human Rights Centre. Many migrants hated apartheid and actively fought it.

There are benefits and drawbacks to all immigration. Are we contributing to the African brain drain by accepting so many skilled South Africans? Does this further the effects of apartheid because it is the whites who have the educational advantages that allow them to leave? And is it really possible for us to claim the moral high ground when we would probably leave our country too in the same circumstances?
Read the full story

ucked behind a mountain of luggage amid the bustle of Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, an Iraqi couple and their three daughters say their last farewells to friends. Having been stranded in Indonesia for almost seven years, they have finally been given the opportunity to begin a new life on the east coast of Australia.

"I couldn't make any plans for my future until now," said Hassan Sami Al-Badri, the family patriarch. "Now I'm going to Australia, I feel like I've been given a new life." Al-Badri left his homeland, Iraq, for Iran in 1972 – when he was two years old – due to the persecution faced by his parents under the Saddam Hussein regime. He has never known what it is like to have a permanent home.

He and his wife, also an Iraqi exile, were not allowed to work in Iran, while their young daughters were not able to attend school under government regulations. Because of the difficult conditions in Iran, the family flew to Malaysia in 2001 and then made their way by boat to Indonesia.

But they also faced hardship and uncertainty in Indonesia and, two years ago, Al-Badri told UNHCR staff of their desire to live in a place they could really call home. While the Indonesian government allows refugees to stay temporarily, they do not have legal status or work rights and so struggle to build any kind of normal existence.

"Indonesia has been very generous in allowing refugees to stay temporarily, while we look for a more durable solution," said Robert Ashe, UNHCR's regional representative in Jakarta. "That solution has now been offered by Australia, a strong supporter of UNHCR's work both in financial contributions and in terms of providing resettlement opportunities to refugees from many parts of the world."

While Al-Badri and his family will not miss the restrictions facing refugees in Indonesia, they will miss the close friends they have made after seven years of living in the local community. This means there is also some sadness in leaving.

"My heart was very sad and I cried saying goodbye to my neighbours and friends," Al-Badri admitted. His 10-year-old daughter, Esra, pulled a damp handkerchief out of her backpack and said: "It's wet from all my tears, when I was saying goodbye to my friends."

But she was still looking forward to a new life in Australia. "I want to go to school, and I want to become a doctor so I can help people when they get sick," she revealed.

Esra and her sisters had started attending school in Indonesia, but Al-Badri explained that the two elder girls had to stop going, because they had difficulties with the language. "I've been teaching them at home for the last couple of years. And they go to English and computer classes at the refugee centre," he said.

They are all determined to make the most of this opportunity and are confident that they can make a positive contribution in Australia. Al-Badri's wife, Hana, motioned towards her suitcase and explained: "It's full of beads. I'm going to make them into bags and bead jewellery in Australia, and hopefully I can sell them."

Al-Badri, meanwhile, was carrying the materials he uses to teach computer classes at the refugee centre, hopeful that he can get a job as a teacher in Australia. His daughters are eager to restart their education, and learn English.

"It has always been our hope that we could start a new life in Australia," Al-Badri said. "Finally our patience has been rewarded," his wife added.

By Jacqueline Parry and Anita Restu
in Jakarta, Indonesia Read the full story

The poorer got poorer and the rich got richer'Charity organization focuses on 'forgotten' Afghan provinces

One of the first requests a group of Afghans made to Flora MacDonald was for her non-profit organization to bring a new teacher to their district.

MacDonald knew they needed something else first.

A schoolhouse.

"We have to begin with them at a very low level," said MacDonald, a former foreign affairs minister and Kingston and the Islands MP.

Men of the village each made 2,000 mud bricks to help build the school.

Then they got their teacher.

"Bit by bit, things are being improved," MacDonald said, "but it takes a long time."

One problem, MacDonald said, is that most of the money and media attention goes to Kandahar province where Canadian Forces continue to fight the Taliban. The 32 other provinces in the country, she said, are largely forgotten.

MacDonald returned last week from her latest trip to Afghanistan, her 10th in the last seven years. Her most recent visit was part of a mission for her charity, Future Generations Canada.

The organization focuses most of its efforts and resources on educational, training and literacy programs. This past trip, the focus was on infrastructure, including work to build aquaducts to rural villages and solar panels for homes.

Non-governmental organizations that pledge to help end up forgetting the people outside Kandahar in provinces such as Bamyan, where Future Generations Canada works, Mac-Donald said.

The charity's program director in Afghanistan, Abdullah Barat, wrote in April that billions of aide dollars have flowed to Afghanistan.

"Unfortunately, however, no one thought to create a good strategy of how to use the money as a resource to rebuild the foundations of Afghanistan society. Instead, the billions of dollars became the means to pay the expenses of a luxury lifestyle for a few warlords and nongovernmental organization leaders in Kabul," he wrote in the report, available on the charity's website.

"Day by day, the poor got poorer and the rich got richer."

The April report noted that there continue to be challenges dealing with the Afghan bureaucracy as well as getting NGOs to listen to community-based leaders.

MacDonald said her organization is doing a lot of work with those NGOs to install solar panels on huts in villages to give Afghans electricity.

Another project for the group, MacDonald said, is to create the first national park in the country. Currently, the Afghan government is in the midst of declaring the Bande Amir Lakes a national preserve.

Bande Amir is a series of five blue lakes that cascade over natural dams, streaming down the mountainside into each other. If the approval for national park status goes through, MacDonald said the area would have riding and walking trails and would also create employment for people in the region.

MacDonald's interest in Afghanistan predates her time as Canada's first female foreign affairs minister. It began, she said, with an uncle who was posted at the Khyber Pass in the early 1900s. The pass is the gate through which Pakistan and Afghanistan are connected.

MacDonald's uncle was there as a member of the Imperial Black Watch, a Canadian regiment whose colonel-in-chief today is Prince Charles. The man wrote numerous letters home to his family and they eventually flowed to MacDonald, who has them to this day.

While she has taken a keen interest in rebuilding and helping the third-poorest country in the world, MacDonald said Afghanistan is often forgotten.

"It's been a longtime interest [of mine]," she said. "The world occasionally takes an interest in Afghanistan.

"Sooner or later, we realize that a lot has to be done there if we are to have peace in [the region]." Read the full story

The Frontier Post
The World Bank will focus its aid to Afghanistan on the revival of agriculture and enhanced food production to help the impoverished country in becoming self-sufficient in that important sector Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director of the World Bank, told a press conference here on Tuesday World Bank would provide Afghanistan a grant of $255 million for eight development projects during the current year.

She said the reason for shifting the focus to agriculture and food production was that fuel and food prices had witnessed huge spikes in the international market. Prevailing market trends had an enormous effect on food prices in Afghanistan, she reasoned. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala informed journalists the World Bank would finance uplift projects of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitations and Development (MRRD), infrastructure plans, agriculture, health and power supply schemes. The managing director, who arrived here two days back to assess the banks activities in Afghanistan and meet Afghan officials on preparations for the Paris Conference, said her discussions with President Hamid Karzai revolved around on Kabuls homework for the important donors moot in Paris.

On Monday, she visited Bamyan to inspect projects funded by the World Bank. She hailed the Afghan governments achievements in health and education sectors over the last few years. In the same breath, however, she made clear the progress made hitherto was inadequate and there was need for further improvement. Before concluding her three-day visit, she reaffirmed World Banks long-term commitment to building a prosperous and stable nation. She went to Bamyan to see first-hand how local communities were coming together to define priorities and build essential infrastructure with the support of the government. Only Afghans can develop Afghanistan. They must therefore rise to the challenge and tackle the difficult issues of building institutions, fighting corruption and improving service delivery to ordinary citizens, the visiting managing director stressed. According to a press release from the World Bank here, she believed the international community should support Afghanistan and its development and recognize that the process would require their long-term engagement.

The World Bank recently committed a $30 million grant to help improve sustainability of microfinance sector in Afghanistan, where access to microfinance services has reached over 436,000 Afghans in 23 provinces. Sixty five percent of borrowers are women. Since resumption of operations in Afghanistan in April 2002, the World Bank has financed 37 projects, committing around $1.66 billion of which $1.2 billion is grant and $436.4 credit (interest-free loan). By the end of the current fiscal year, the World Bank commitment will be $255 million in grants. The projects mostly support rural livelihoods, rebuilding infrastructure, education and basic health services. Read the full story

DT

Earning a diploma was highly unlikely for student who did not receive any formal education before starting high school

It’s hard for Ali Hussein to relate to any of his peers at Noblesville High School.
The Afghanistan native is from a different world, far removed from the suburbs in which his classmates have spent their lives. But Friday night, he found himself one of them – a proud graduate of NHS.

Ali had no formal schooling when he registered at Perry Meridian High School four years ago. Ali’s father died while he was barely a teenager, leaving him to care for his mother and younger siblings by going into business for himself – working nearly 80 hours a week weaving and repairing rugs for subsistence wages.
In the 1980s, Ali’s father fought against the invading forces of the former Soviet Union. But after driving the Soviets out in the late ’80s, a civil war erupted in Afghanistan which eventually brought the Taliban to power and made Hazara people, an ethnic group from the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, the persecuted minority.


His family fled across the border to Kuetta, Pakistan where they applied for refugee status hoping to resettle in the United States. During a Shiite religious celebration shortly after U.S. forces brought the War on Terror to the Taliban; suicide bombers killed 150 Shiites and wounded many more in Kuetta. Ali was in the thick of it.


Finally, after four years of waiting, Ali learned his family had a sponsor in the U.S. thanks to the help of Catholic Social Services. After moving to Noblesville three years ago and enrolling at NHS, the possibility of him completing school in the same timeframe as other students was unrealistic.


“It was just a dream. No one in his family never, ever thought it would be a reality,” said Carol Beardshear, NHS foreign language teacher. “He spoke English, but poorly. He lacked any awareness of school workings, homework and attendance.”


No one was happier to shake Noblesville Schools Superintendent Lynn Lehman’s hand and receive his black bound diploma than Ali Friday.


“It really feels cool, awesome,” said Ali. “I’ve never felt anything like this. I never thought I would have the opportunity. It’s a dream (I thought was) impossible to achieve.”


“The fact that he’s graduating is almost a miracle,” said Beardshear. “Odds of him graduating were so low when he first came here as a refugee. Through the efforts of a lot of people he’s made it. It’s a success story on a lot of levels.”


When Ali’s mother and brothers moved to St. Louis to join a larger community of Afghan refugees, he asked to stay in Noblesville and complete his education. He has been staying at the Gordon-Sharples residence. Having that daily influence has helped Ali pick up American customs and language quickly, especially American slang.


“He’s just blossomed (with English), that’s something that takes time. Living with an American family has made all the difference,” said Beardshear. “So many doors would open for him here (with a diploma).”
“They helped me a lot with school, homework,” Ali said of the Gordon-Sharples. “You need someone to teach you some stuff. Just being with them helped me.”


Ali said he enjoys Noblesville because “it’s a quiet place, more like your own little world, with nice people.”
Science classes, especially biology, were the hardest for Ali in high school, but he really enjoyed algebra and math classes.


“They say math is the international language,” he joked.


He will become the first to earn a diploma in his family.


“School was difficult, everything was different,” he said. “I felt totally weird about it (in the beginning). You had no clue what you were doing. Since I was learning the language, (classes) were getting harder and harder. When I saw how easy others were understanding it, I felt bad about it.”
Instead of working after school to have money to go out or purchase the latest gadgets and toys, Ali works to support his two sisters, who remain in Pakistan with their children, in the hopes of helping to feed them and bring them over to America.


Ali said that he is unsure what he will do after graduation because his entire time in Noblesville has been spent focusing on earning a diploma. In the meantime, as he works to reunite his family, Ali is looking forward to one future event in May 2009 – when he will be eligible to become a U.S. citizen.
“It’s such a nice country. It’s a country for everybody,” he said. “You can achieve something here. That’s why you come to be a part of this country.” Read the full story

The Victorian Government is being urged to increase incentive programs for refugees to settle outside Melbourne.

The study, funded by VicHealth and several universities, found refugees who settled outside a major metropolitan area were healthier and developed stronger links with the community than their city counterparts.

VicHealth chief executive Tod Harper says refugees are healthier and adapt better socially if they move into a welcoming community.

"The most successful migration programs from the point of view of the migrants were also the ones that were more successful from a local community perspective," he said.

"I think that was because there was a linking up of both the needs of the migrants and the local communities."

Mr Harper says the research also showed that refugees provided a direct benefit to regional economies. Read the full story

LG

On May 23, Hafizur Rahman, who has lived in Australia for 12 years and was working as a printer in Sydney, was told by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship that he must leave the country by June 6.

His application for asylum has failed and he must return to Bangladesh, from where he fled as a political refugee 15 years ago. “They are forcing me to go home — I am almost halfway dead”, the May 28 Australian quoted Rahman as saying

Another article in the Australian that day reported that immigration minister Chris Evans, under his power to have the final say in asylum seekers’ fate, is rejecting Section 417 applications (the last option for asylum in cases where visas are rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal) at a rate of three to one.

Two asylum seekers from China, both long-term detainees in Villawood Detention Centre, staged a two-day rooftop protest at the prison camp after their cases were also rejected by the minister. One of the men is a Falun Gong practitioner and they both fear deportation to China. A May 26 statement by the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) said there had already been three Chinese asylum seekers deported from Villawood in the last fortnight.

Figures from the minister suggest there are 19 people in Villawood facing deportation. Ian Rintoul from RAC reported: “Tensions are running high in Villawood … Many of those rejected have said they would rather die in detention in Australia than be sent back … Some of the people rejected by the minister had recommendations from the Ombudsman that they be released.”

Meanwhile, at the Victorian ALP state conference on May 24, delegates unanimously supported a motion calling on the federal ALP to urgently repeal Section 209 of the Australian Government Migration Act 1958, under which asylum seekers are billed for the cost of their mandatory detention. The motion, which also called for existing Section 209 debts to be waived, states in part: “The practice of sending a bill to this most disempowered section of the community who have had no say in their detention and who have merely exercised their right under international law to seek asylum in this country is grotesque and reprehensible.” Read the full story

New research suggests refugees adapt to life in Australia more successfully, if they settle in a regional area.

The study, funded by VicHealth, found refugees who settled outside a major metropolitan area were healthier and developed stronger links with the community, than their city counterparts.

The organisation's chief executive, Tod Harper, says the research also showed that refugees provided a direct benefit to regional economies.

He says the most successful migration programs from the point of view of the migrants were also the ones that were more successful from a local community perspective.

Mr Harper says this is because there is a linking up of both the needs of the migrants as well as that of the local communities. Read the full story