ISLAMABAD, May 28: Three international aid agencies have come together to launch the Return Facilitation and Communities Support Progra-mme, a new initiative to assist the sustainable return of Afghan refugees, while also supporting the development of refugee-impacted communities in Pakistan.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Italian Trade Unions Institute for Development Co-operation (ISCOS), and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) will jointly run the EuropeAid- funded programme to benefit more than 146,000 individuals and 736,000 members of their wider communities.

The programme will operate for 18 months throughout the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The estimated 2.5m Afghan refugees currently living in Pakistan are facing increased pressure to return home.

The deadline for UN-assisted repatriation is December 2006, but many Afghans are unwilling or unable to repatriate because they don’t have sufficient information about the present security situation in Afghanistan, or the skills needed to get a job in the Afghan marketplace.

Refugees need to be given the marketable skills to establish self-reliance, as well as the information and legal support to make confident and educated decisions about return, says Heng Djin Tjik, acting coordinator for the three-partner consortium, and deputy director IRC. The programme will combine these different elements to provide a rounded approach to repatriation. The key is to target sustainability and empowerment.

The new programme will provide information, legal aid and protection through mobile teams and trainings to empower 58,000 individuals to make informed decisions about repatriation.

Activities will target obstacles to return and co-existence, such as land disputes, landlessness and documentation problems, helping refugees to access safe, dignified and durable solutions to repatriation.