Taking Refugees For a Ride? The Politics of Refugee Return in Afghanistan

Between March and September 2002, approximately 1.7 million refugees are estimated to have returned to Afghanistan in the largest and most rapid assisted return movement to have been organised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 1972. This paper charts the course of the assisted repatriation programme, discusses its consequences for those who repatriated, those who did not, and for the pace of reconstruction in Afghanistan, and asks whether it should—and could—have been managed differently.