Afghanistan stops repatriation of temporarily displaced persons

Officers on Afghan side stated they were directed by their government not to allow them to return

PESHAWAR: The temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) from North Waziristan that were bound to return to their hometown from Afghanistan were stopped by Afghan forces, officials said on Wednesday.

A government official from North Waziristan told The Express Tribune that the TDP’s were bound to return from February 6. "However, they were stopped yesterday two kilometers short of zero point by Afghan border police”, said the official, adding that officers on the Afghan side stated they were directed by their government not to allow them to return.



There are more than 4,000 families stranded in Afghanistan living as displaced families who were bound to return.

This is the second phase of return of families from Afghanistan. The process was earlier halted after the Sehwan bombing when the borders were sealed. According to officials almost 100 families are trapped in cold weather at the moment.

On January 30, nearly 700 families of TDPs returned from Afghanistan to Bakka Khel Camp Bannu. The families had fled to Afghanistan’s Khost province after the army initiated the military operation Zarb-e-Azb in 2014 to counter terrorism in the region.

According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) figures around 291,800 individuals had moved to Afghanistan after the operation and had settled in the Gulan Camp in Gurboz district of Afghanistan’s Khost province.