Pakistan sends back Afghan refugees

Pakistani guards pushed back hundreds of refugees

Pakistan and the Taleban are setting up camps inside Afghanistan, where they will send some of the thousands of refugees who have gathered along the border after fleeing US air strikes, drought and hunger.

We must establish camps across the border in Afghanistan, instead of making them comfortable here in Pakistan

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf

Up to 15,000 Afghans are stranded in no man's land between the two countries and border guards have been fighting back refugees trying to enter Pakistan at Chaman, a flashpoint in recent days.

The United Nations prediction of a million Afghans fleeing the country has yet to materialise, however, and the BBC's Afghanistan correspondent says most of the refugees have left the cities to go to other areas within the country.

The UN refugees agency has condemned the decision to set up camps in Afghanistan, saying continued fighting will make it impossible to guarantee the safety of the refugees and difficult to give them aid.

Click here for map of the refugee situation

Afghan refugees holding valid documents for entry into Pakistan would be allowed to stay in the country, Pakistani officials said.

Last week, thousands crossed into Pakistan at the Chaman checkpoint, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Quetta, including 5,000 on Saturday alone.

Before the crisis, Pakistan was already sheltering two million Afghan refugees

On Tuesday, about 100 Afghan refugees fought their way across the Pakistan border, one day after hundreds had been pushed back into Afghanistan by Pakistani guards.

Pakistan has rejected UN demands to allow in more Afghan refugees.

"Our point of view has always been that we must establish camps across the border in Afghanistan and all assistance to the refugees must be given there, so that people go back to Afghanistan instead of making them comfortable here in Pakistan," Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf told CNN on Tuesday.

"Pakistan is prepared to accept people who are old, injured, children, some women," General Musharraf said. "But we cannot open the flood gates for all refugees flowing into Pakistan."

In the first weeks of the current crisis, there were reports of large-scale population movements elsewhere inside Afghanistan.

Residents flee Kandahar

BBC Afghanistan correspondent Kate Clark says many of the refugees originate from the city of Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan.

Formerly the home of hundreds of thousands of civilians, Kandahar has been one of the main targets of the US-led air strikes.

Residents say that up to 80% of the population has now fled the city centre, making for the outskirts, villages or Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in the central highlands of Hazarajat, people who had fled to the cities after the Taleban massacred civilians earlier this year have returned to seek safety among their own ethnic group.

Many are living in mosques and other public buildings, getting support from the community.

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