Riyaz ul Khaliq
03 January 2025•Update: 03 January 2025
ISTANBUL
Afghanistan’s interim Taliban administration began distributing land Thursday among repatriated Afghan refugees from Pakistan and Iran, said officials.
"Returnees deserve to receive land for agriculture and building houses," Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban administration’s nominee to the UN, told Anadolu by phone from Kabul.
He said the administration, which was established after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, has various programs aimed at providing facilities to returnees.
"Among them is the distribution of land under a housing scheme as well as arable land for agriculture and farming in various provinces," said Shaheen, who represents the Taliban at its political office in the Qatari capital Doha.
According to Afghanistan's state-run Bakhtar News Agency, the long-awaited land distribution process officially kicked off Thursday in the Sheikh Mati settlement in southern Zabul province, which has more than 5,000 Afghan returnees.
The refugee settlement "is a comprehensive program aimed at providing land for returnees both from Pakistan and Iran," Shaheen said.
The interim administration established the Sheikh Mati settlement in the province, which boasts a total of 2,000 jeribs of land designated for distribution to returnees. One jerib equals almost half an acre.
Pakistan launched the “Illegal Foreigners' Repatriation Plan” in October 2023, under which Islamabad repatriated 757,008 undocumented Afghans to its western neighbor.
The initiative was taken even though the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had urged Pakistan to continue to protect all vulnerable refugees who had sought safety in the country.
Similarly, Iran repatriated at least 450,000 refugees, mostly from Afghanistan, in the three months until November last year.
The returned refugees were without requisite legal documents, according to Iran’s National Migration Organization.
According to Shaheen, the interim administration has launched various programs including for creating job opportunities aimed at providing facilities to the returnees.
It marks the second time since the late 1990s that the Taliban is ruling Afghanistan, a war-torn nation, but three years in, the administration is yet to be internationally recognized.
