New York, Mar 2 2011 6:10PM
United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and award-winning Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie today called for greater focus to be put on the reintegration of former Afghan refugees as she wrapped up her second visit to the country.
"We need to revisit the idea of what return is and the difference between just returning and reintegrating," <"http://www.unhcr.org/4d6e7a8d6.html">said Ms. Jolie, who first visited Afghanistan as a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ambassador in 2008, and this time met with some of the same people she saw then and found them still struggling to survive and reintegrate.
More than 5.5 million Afghan refugees have returned since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, mainly from Pakistan and Iran, and they now make up 20 per cent of the population. UNHCR is concerned that too many of these former refugees continue to live without jobs, shelter and other basic needs.
"The focus needs to be put now on reintegration, and that means not just putting up shelter but making sure there is water, job opportunities, a school for the children and medical clinics," Ms. Jolie said, as she returned to visit families living in a dilapidated warehouse in Kabul, the capital, that once served as a storage facility for the national bus company.
She caught up again with Khanum Gul in the small damp room she shares with her husband and eight children. A UNHCR plastic tarpaulin covered a gaping hole in the front wall, providing some shelter from the wind and snow. On Ms. Jolie's 2008 visit, Ms. Khanum had just given birth to her son Samir.
"It was very distressing to see that, because of the poor conditions, Samir seems to be suffering some form of developmental delay due to malnutrition or lack of medical care," she said. "He can't walk and is barely surviving in what can only be described as a very cold and damp warehouse."
Ms. Khanum's husband, Eshan, tries to earn a living as a daily labourer. He waits for hours every day but is rarely picked for work. The couple also support Ms. Khanum's ailing 70-year-old mother, Bi Bi Zamo Jan, who also met Ms. Jolie on her first visit.
"This old woman was so upset, because she feels like a burden. She watches her grandchildren go onto the streets every day to wash cars for a dollar a day so the family can eat. Often they earn nothing," Ms. Jolie said. "Everyone I have met on this visit has been very clear. The Afghan people don't want to become beggars. They want the opportunity to work for a living with dignity so they can provide for their families."
Although in Asia, Ms. Jolie did not forget other refugees and displaced people suffering a continent away in Africa, voicing deep concern for the tens of thousands of civilians caught up in two separate and fast-unfolding emergencies in Côte d'Ivoire and Libya.
"As we witness these newest crises unfold in West and North Africa, it is critical that all parties respect the fundamental right of people in danger to flee to safety – whether civilians caught in conflict in their own country or refugees and asylum-seekers caught in new conflicts," she said. "All I'm asking is that civilians be protected, and not targeted or harmed."
In Côte d'Ivoire, fierce fighting in the Abobo district of Abidjan and clashes in the west over the past few days have blocked access for humanitarian organizations and brought the country perilously close to all-out civil war as former president Laurent Gbagbo refuses to leave office despite his UN-certified defeat by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara in elections in November.
Thousands of people have been displaced in Abidjan, the commercial hub, as Gbagbo loyalists have launched attacks, and refugees have been streaming across the western border into Liberia in unprecedented numbers.
At the same time, UNHCR is worried for scores of thousands of refugees, asylum-seekers and irregular migrants still inside Libya, where President Muammar Al-Qadhafi's regime has violently repressed peaceful civilian protesters seeking his ouster.
"With these new waves of uprising and conflict, there is and will continue to be massive new displacement," Ms. Jolie said. "The world needs to address this moment. We have to give people safe passage, evacuation if needed, and ensure they have asylum. We don't want to look back and find their deaths are on our hands."
Mar 2 2011 6:10PM
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