Fighting season

The commemoration of World Refugee Day, on 20 June, was marked in Afghanistan by an announcement by the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, that the movement of people across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border had changed in character for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, when Russia imposed a government in 1978. Instead of the 'classical' movement of Afghan refugees crossing into Pakistan, a recent study by the agency suggested, this movement was now becoming increasingly 'normalised', with most of the crossborder movement that of economic migrants rather than those fleeing war. Yet while the agency's country office touted this as a positive trend, behind the numbers is another story.

An understanding of the complexity of the situation seems to be tacit within UNHCR, as well. As the agency's Afghanistan director, Ewen Macleod, pointed out, "People are moving increasingly for social and economic purposes to and from Afghanistan. But this does not mean that the factors that can give rise to refugee flight or internal displacement have been fully overcome." The findings of the study, which mapped the border crossings at Torkham and Spin Boldak, could largely be a result of the fact that Pakistan is not only unwilling to continue to host Afghan refugees, but is also pressuring the remaining refugees to leave the country. With camps forcibly shut down, harassment from the authorities and the deteriorating economic and security situation within Pakistan, Afghans have little option but to head back to their own country.