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Amnesty critical of Australian plans to repatriate refugees

The worldwide head of the human rights group, Amnesty International has criticised Australia's plans to repatriate Afghan refugees and asylum seekers to their homeland.

Speaking in Melbourne, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan, said it was premature to talk about organised returns.

She says this is because Afghanistan's interim government is unable to protect people from widespread banditry or fighting between rival warlords:

"Most western developed countries that have Afghan refugees are not seriously considering return. There are refugees of course, going back from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Equally there is an outflow of about thirty thousand refugees who have left Afghanistan and arrived in Pakistan since the beginning of the year. So that shows how unstable and uncertain the situation now is. To talk about large scale return, organised return, from a country as distant as Australia to Afghanistan now, would be very counterproductive."

08/03/2002 18:13:23 | ABC Radio Australia News

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