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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Maki Shinohara

Aired August 11, 2002 - 09:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We just told you about a published report that Iran is expelling al Qaeda terrorist members to Saudi Arabia. Well, now there is a complaint Iranian authorities are pressuring Afghan refugees to leave their homes in Iran and return to Afghanistan.
The U.N. Refugee Agency says that violates an agreement between the two countries and the refugee agency. Joining me to talk about that is Maki Shinohara, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. She joins us from Kabul. Thanks very much for being with us this morning, Ms. Shinohara.

Who are these refugees, and why are they returning now? Do they want to come back to Afghanistan?

MAKI SHINOHARA, UNHCR SPOKESWOMAN: Well, so far we have received about 1.5 million refugees voluntarily returning to Afghanistan. What we were concerned about is that in the past week, the returning families from Iran have been saying that they were somehow induced or pressured to return. Of course, the return figures from Iran is fairly low compared to the returns from Pakistan, and we certainly do welcome voluntary returns of refugees. However, what we are really concerned about is some kind of coercion to get these refugees to return.

Again, we already have 1.5 million. This is far exceeding the initial return figures that we hoped to have by the end of this year, so naturally our resources are being really stretched to the limits. We are trying to help as many as two million refugees until the end of this year, but if there would be some forced returns, then obviously we have a great concern about the capacity of Afghanistan.

COOPER: You mentioned you have seen an uptick in the number of refugees from Iran returning. If you could just give a sense of the numbers. What kind of numbers are we talking about, and then if you could talk about what are the difficulties that these people face? I mean, you said your resources are stretched pretty thin. What kind of an environment are these refugees returning to?

SHINOHARA: Well, so far we have about 122,000 refugees returning. These are assisted returns by aid agencies, returning from Iran. Over the past week or so, we are seeing some increase in the rate of returns. In and of itself, is not -- it's something to welcome.

However, these people were told that there is a timeline in returning to Afghanistan. Otherwise, they may not receive aid. UNHCR will help assist those people who will willingly return to their country who are basically prepared that once they are back inside Afghanistan, they will have some difficulties in terms of shelter, to gain some jobs, in terms of schooling. As much as things are improving inside Afghanistan, there are still some places where security is not so secure, and then we also have the effects of drought, which has not reversed itself yet.

COOPER: Just very briefly, in the last few seconds we have left, does UNHCR screen these people who are returning from Iran in terms of trying to find out if any of them have any connection to al Qaeda or to terrorism?

SHINOHARA: Well, for the most part, the refugees that we are assisting pre-registered in asylum countries. These are mainly big families with many children and grandmothers and grandfathers, if you will.

What most of our assistant packages are provided for Afghan family members who are mainly going back to rural countries, and most of these people have been away for five or six years. So these are not really the recent refugees who fled the country.

COOPER: OK, Maki Shinohara with UNHCR, thanks very much for joining us this morning from Kabul.

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