Talking Points

Salaam alaikum and welcome to Monday’s press briefing. Today, with regret the Special Representative was unable to make this press briefing. We did send out a note. I apologize if you all didn’t receive that. However, we do have a few notes on UN activities and related things you may wish to know about. Plus we have colleagues here from Altai, from UNHCR and from ILO on a new study on the reintegration of returnees to the Afghan labour market. I’ll be handing over to them shortly.

Human Rights Day
December 10th is International Human Rights Day. The global theme this year is human rights and poverty, and UNAMA is distributing to any news organization interested an Op-ed by High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on this theme. Copies of that are available on the side table. We can also make available to you the Dari and Pashto versions. In addition to the global theme, Afghanistan is expected to have a theme of its own – related to transitional justice. We are expecting to hear in the next day or so from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Government on events being planned for this occasion, and will keep you informed.

Also on the side table are details of a campaign against arbitrary detention, involving the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and UNAMA. Under the Afghanistan Compact and Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) eliminating arbitrary and illegal detention has been identified as a benchmark to Afghanistan’s progress.

DIAG – President’s initiative welcomed
On the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups programme, 2006 has been a difficult year. In that regard, UNAMA welcomes the President's initiative of November 22 in convening a meeting of cabinet members and jihadi political leaders to discuss ways forward. We are encouraged by this renewal of government commitment to the programme, and remain ready -- along with our international partners -- to support its implementation.

The background to the President's meeting is that it has come towards the end of an exhaustive joint review of the DIAG programme by Afghan and international stakeholders. The review panel will be recommending several adjustments to the programme, although its successful implementation will also rest on achieving improved security in insurgency-affected areas.

In two areas, Kapisa and Takhar, there has recently been positive news with regard to compliance. A number of districts in these provinces will therefore be benefiting from development projects in the near future.

International Volunteer Day
Every year on 5 December, International Volunteer Day is celebrated all over the world.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) office in Kabul will celebrate the Day tomorrow - by distributing donations collected from UN staff to several orphanages across the country.

Volunteerism is not only about being there and making a difference with hands on experience. At a personal level, volunteerism is all about how one can make a difference directly or indirectly in the lives of people who are in need.

This plan is part of a wider initiative by the UNV office which will be launched in six different provinces and which involves UN staff in a volunteer activity, showing them that: “one small contribution can bring a big smile on an orphan’s face”.

As a result of this initiative, a kitchen will be constructed at the Jalalabad orphanage and a total of 150 blankets, 500 pairs of shoes, 1,800 items of stationary, 500 jumpers and jackets, 700 pairs of socks, sports goods, heaters, 200 bottles of shampoo, 18,000 bars of soap will be distributed to children living in Herat, Kunduz, Mazar, Faizabad, Jalalabad and Bamyan orphanages.

Some 2,070 children will benefit from this volunteer initiative.

The distributions will take place in ceremonies scheduled tomorrow. For more information, please see the side table, which has contact information for each of the ceremonies across the country.

Questions and Answers:

Question - DPA: I just wanted to know the UN’s comment on civilian casualties. Since last Friday, several civilians were killed by ISAF troops as they were approaching their vehicles. The most recent was yesterday after a suicide attack… they started spraying bullets.

Spokesperson: Our position on the need to uphold humanitarian and human rights law is very well known. There is a duty of care for the protection of civilians in any area of conflict, and it must be upheld. Humanitarian and human rights law doesn’t just apply to one group; it applies to everyone – be they international military, government forces, Taliban, or others. On yesterday’s suicide attack in Kandahar, this is the latest in a series of suicide attacks in the last 10 days or so. I believe there have been 11 such attacks between the 18th of November and the 3rd of December. Needless to say, we condemn all acts of terrorism. We, like you, have heard reports of civilians being wounded, even killed, after this particular incident [in Kandahar]. But we don’t have full details, and I think exactly what happened isn’t yet clear.

Question - All India Radio: There have been reports today morning that the agreement in Musa Qala between tribal elders and British forces has failed. There have also been civilian casualties in some areas. The United Nations had earlier welcomed such agreements in order to prevent violence from continuing. This agreement is failing and there are other such agreements occurring elsewhere. How do you look at the future?

Spokesperson: We don’t yet have a view on that [Musa Qala] agreement. We’re still looking to see and make up our minds about that. With UNAMA, we have no mandate to negotiate with the Taliban. We’re certainly in favour of peaceful solutions that might come forward. But these have to be on the basis of Afghanistan’s Constitution. I think that with anything outside the Constitution…no deal is going to be possible.

I’ll take one more question before handing over.

Question - Finnish Broadcasting Company: Sir, I would like to have your comment on the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. There are plenty of reports saying that this country has… very insecure situation. Some have even called this “Jihadistan”. What is your comment on that and other reports?

Spokesperson: There is certainly an insurgency affecting large areas – I believe at least 20 per cent of the country is affected at the moment. And yes indeed other areas of the country have seen incidents of violence too. But I think we have to be honest in looking at the fact that while yes that story of insurgency is true, there’s also another story happening in very large parts of this country. The Bonn process and the Afghanistan Compact which began in 2001 and the beginning of this year respectively, are very much on track. It’s in these agreements that the international commitment to Afghanistan lies. Here in Afghanistan you still have one of the biggest nation rebuilding projects anywhere in the world ongoing at this time. That project is firmly on track.

I will hand over now to our guest speakers. Francois Reybet-Degat is Assistant Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Gregor Schulz is the Acting Head of the International Labour Organization; and Eric Davin, a partner with the NGO Altai.

Guest Speakers:

UNHCR: Salaam alaikum. Good morning. My name is Francois Reybet-Degat and I am the Assistant Representative of UNHCR. The research we are going to present today takes place within a broad and multi-year initiative called the Afghan Comprehensive Solution Unit. This initiative promotes the idea, the concept that the movement of Afghans to and from Afghanistan should not only be seen as a refugee problem but should increasingly be seen and handled as a temporary migration phenomenon. Key partners in this initiative, first and foremost, have been the three Governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran; the European Commission, which has funded this initiative since 2003; migration specialist organizations ILO and IOM [International Organization for Migration]; and also research institutes and firms, such as the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit [AREU] and Altai.

One of the many areas of interest has been the manner in which returnees do reintegrate in Afghanistan from the socio-economic point of view. Today we are particularly looking at reintegration in the labour market. The study was a joint initiative of ILO and UNHCR, and contracted to Altai – a Franco-Afghan consulting firm. I will pass the floor to one of the founding partners of Altai, Eric Davin, who will make a quick presentation of the main contents and conclusions of the report. Thank you.

Eric Davin, Altai Consulting: We tried to look at a broad selection of returnees, from the most successful to the most vulnerable. We consider that some returnees are among the key leaders in the Afghan Government, in Ministries and in the media. We tried to look at the whole spectrum. We gave a voice to some of those in the tough parts of Kabul, in the returnee camps and we gave a voice to those who have been successful, for example in the field of construction. Among the key findings, we were looking at those people living in the provinces of Kabul, Herat and Nangahar. These were chosen as they represented at end of 2005 and early 2006 about 40 percent of returns from neighbouring countries and from the rest of the world. We interviewed people from both rural areas and from urban centres. In terms of social, demographic and economic profile were relatively in line with the rest of the Afghan population. There was, on average no difference in the levels of hardship experienced by returnees compared with the resident population. The average income in urban centres was USD150 - which is in line with normal average, monthly earnings. And twenty percent had a monthly revenue above USD250, including over USD1,000 in some cases.

We also looked at the way some people reintegrated and this was the key focus of the study. Although most of them said that it had been difficult to find a job when they returned from exile, we found that over 90 percent of the returnees had found a job within six months. Most of them strongly relied on their existing networks to find a job on arrival – both old networks and new ones they had made while in exile. We found returnees in all key sectors of the Afghan economy with a dominance in three sectors – the first one being construction with 25 percent interviewees we met; the second one is wholesale and shops with 20 percent and the third one is manufacturing with about 13 percent of the people we met. We also found people at all levels on the job ladder – from the most qualified senior managers and officials to the less qualified manual workers. You do not see just low-skilled workers returning.

Returnees have also benefited from exile, they have learnt new skills and experienced other jobs, markets and cultures. This has given them more chances when they come back and is a positive asset. We observed that 45 percent of working returnees are self-employed and there is a real strong entrepreneurship amongst the returnees. They are probably the strongest entrepreneurs in Afghanistan today.

The key factors are as follows: their situation before exile; their level of education; which province they came from; and their job before they left Afghanistan in the 1970s or 1980s. It is also important that those who come back to Afghanistan are able to successfully reintegrate and stay in the country.

The first group we looked at were casual, day labourers who, whilst not the majority of returnees are a vulnerable group and it is important that social programmes look at their needs. The second group was semi-skilled workers, who mainly work in the manufacturing sector. The third group was Government employees who in the main have been able to find a job with their former Ministries. The fourth group is probably the most interesting and they are the small business and shop owners. These people are highly successful and earn well above the normal monthly salaries and often take home USD 400-500. The fifth group is managers in the traditional sectors – agriculture, manufacturing. The sixth group are those people involved in the new sectors of communication – the media, consulting, the UN and NGOs. This is a group which has a high profile, are educated and they will probably have a lot of power in the future. The last group is senior officials and those managers in new sectors who have created new initiatives and are now starting to have a lot of power in this country in the field of telecommunication, NGOs and other new technological sectors. This group also include senior ranking Government officials. These are and will be leading the country.

Question (translated from Dari): The study you have done was in 2005 / 06, but recently there are reports from Afghans who have returned to their country because of not having access to job opportunities in Iran and Pakistan. Do you confirm this report?

Altai: This is true and while at the same time we looked at this population at end of 2005 and early 2006 there was not a clear pattern. We asked people if they had thought about going back to their country of exile – Iran, Pakistan or Europe and less than 20 percent of the people we interviewed said yes they have thought about this, but nor in a very firm way. The rest of the interviewees were saying that this was not something they were considering at all – for a number of reasons. I definitely agree with you we probably have a pattern or trend of people who are considering returning and already a number of people who have already taken the decision to go back. But this is not something we have been able to measure in the last months. There are a number of factors which drive people’s decision to stay in Afghanistan or to stay in exile – social and economic issues; women’s rights; security; opportunity for their children; infrastructure for health and education.

Question (translated from Dari): What are the social capacity concerns which influence returnees decision’s to come back to Afghanistan?

Altai: To look at the social capacity of the Afghan labour market you need a proper analysis of the labour market itself. To look at all sectors, at all labour opportunities and this is something that is in progress with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. We don’t yet have a clear picture, but when we were speaking with Afghan entrepreneurs, we had a very optimistic feedback from the Afghan managers. Most of them were considering recruiting more people and 75 percent were saying that their business was increasing. The labour market has already been able to absorb four million people, of course not all of them are working because that includes children who are at school and women who are staying at home, but a large proportion of that number are working. Only ten percent of the households we visited indicated there was any unemployment – this is something that is very important.

Question (translated from Dari): Afghans due to lack of job opportunities -- be they economic or social, or living conditions in Afghanistan -- are returning to the neighbouring countries. What is the UNHCR programme to prevent these people from going there?

UNHCR: It is not our mandate and responsibility to prevent people from moving for economic reasons. If people leave Afghanistan for these reasons they are economic migrants. However, we must bear in mind the history of migration in this region. Before 1979 there were several hundreds of thousand Afghans in Iran. The very initiative I talked about when introducing this press conference, with the three Governments is exactly attempting to answer your question. We have to recognise that people move. They no longer just move because they are fleeing a conflict, they move because they are seeking opportunities, because it’s part of their livelihood – both within Afghanistan and outside, in the region. We are working very closely with ILO, IOM, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the Ministry of Labour and the three Governments to have legislation mechanism so that these problems can be tackled.

Question (translated from Dari): The question is about Afghans living in camps in Pakistan. People there have been told to leave these camps and go back to their country. Also, the tri-partite agreement between UNHCR, Afghanistan and Pakistan is reaching an end. What do you think? Will people be forced to come back from these camps in Pakistan?

UNHCR: I hope not. That’s the reason we have tri-partite meetings, both with Pakistan and Iran. UNHCR will always work to ensure that the return is voluntary. Currently, there is a registration exercise being carried out in Pakistan and, as a result of which, Afghans duly registered by the Government will receive a proof of registration card valid for three years. So they will be in a position to remain in Pakistan duly documented for a period of three years. There is nothing that would lead us to believe, as UNHCR, that people would be forced back from Pakistan.

Question: Are you sure that the responses you have are honest or is it possible that some of the respondents told you what they think you want to hear?

Altai: That’s a good point. Altai Consulting has interviewed more than 50,000 people in Afghanistan in the last two years. So that’s definitely a question that we have raised a number of times, even before we started working here. You often have this phenomenon where Afghans when they answer questions in a survey, they try to be a bit more positive or optimistic than the real picture. The way we counter this is by working with a variety of tools. We also combine tools like the classical opinion poll, which is a door-to-door interview of between 1,000-3,000 people and we always combine this with focus groups or in-depth interviews. The person conducting the interview is a real social researcher, an Afghan national who has been trained by an international social anthropologist, and who has the time to spend to get around the “positiveness, the willingness to please”.

Question - New York Times: For UNHCR, do you have any updated figures on displaced people in the south? And have you see any movement back in the last month or two?

UNHCR: The answer to your question is probably no but what is important is that UNHCR works very closely under the leadership of UNAMA in support to the Government. The figures and reports we receive vary everyday – from 15,000 to 20,000 families. But you need to deconstruct these numbers. Some figures can be relied upon, others not. What is important for us at this stage is that we are working in support of the Afghan Government. We believe that the most efficient way of doing it is as close as possible to the point of delivery – in the concerned provinces. All the UN agencies work closely under the leadership of UNAMA to support the disaster management committee in Kandahar.

Personally, I have not received any new reports. Also, our information is that people tend to flee and then come back quickly. So there’s a humanitarian concern that assistance be provided in a manner that does not fix the population in displacement, where they need not be fixed. If anyone remembers Maslakh in Heart, it’s something to bear in mind. You don’t want a repeat of what was Maslakh as an IDP camp. So it’s in a state of flux. We have no direct access. The Government also does not have access to a number of districts. So from the last information you were provided, I have no update.

Question - New York Times: So 15,000 to 20,000 … that’s for all of the south?

UNHCR: That’s correct.

Question - New York Times: So that’s Helmand and Kandahar?

UNHCR: Kandahar, Uruzgan and Helmand.

Question - New York Times: The Government figures are much higher, are they not?

UNHCR: You have a lot of figures being communicated. It’s very difficult in the absence of access. It can be from a second or third source, which then has to be checked. I can only be honest in telling you that it’s in a state of flux and I don’t have any up-to-date information to complement what you’ve already been given by UNAMA and other UN agencies.

Question - AP: What would you say is the reason for the lack of access? Why can’t you go out of your compounds in the south?

UNHCR: Security.

Question - AP: Who do you feel threatened by? What’s the main threat? What prevents you from doing your job?

UNHCR: I would also turn to Adrian on this one. From our perspective, we’re in a system that has its own security outfit and this security outfit produces security analyses in different regions. You will not get me into providing a political analysis in the south, but our security outfit is saying in relation to the level of conflict, in relation to the risk posed to your own physical integrity, you should not move outside Kandahar.

Spokesperson: The situation does vary from agency to agency. With UNAMA, for example, we’ve expanded our operations this year. We continue to expand. The insecurity issue I think explains itself. We don’t send our staff into areas of open conflict while conflict is ongoing, for obvious reasons.