US embassy cable - 05CAIRO7878

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 007878 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FROM REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR 
DEPT FOR PRM/A WHITNEY REITZ, PRM/ANE WILLIAM LEHMBERG 
ISLAMABAD AND KABUL FOR REFCOORDS 
ROME FOR DHS/CIS 
GENEVA FOR RMA 
 
TAGS: PREF, PHUM, PA, EG 
SUBJECT: PAKISTAN - GROWING NEED FOR REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT 
 
This message has been cleared by Embassy Islamabad 
 
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Summary 
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1. (SBU) The Cairo-based Regional Refugee Coordinator (for 
resettlement) joined with the Islamabad Refugee Coordinator 
and the Regional Director of the International Catholic 
Migration Commission (ICMC) from October 3-8 to review the 
U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program (USRP) in Pakistan.  They 
visited Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi meeting with local 
offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 
with NGOs and with the International Organization for 
Migration (IOM). 
 
2. (SBU) RefCoords concur with the UNHCR assessment that it 
should be possible to develop a significant resettlement 
caseload of Afghans in Pakistan towards the end of FY 2006 
once the repatriation effort now under way has run its 
course and the proposed registration exercise has been 
completed.  In the short term we can expect greater 
collaboration between UNHCR and NGOs to produce increased 
referrals of vulnerable Afghan cases, of Somalis, and some 
Iranians.   We agreed with UNHCR Peshawar to review a group 
of Afghan Tajiks for possible resettlement and encouraged 
Focus to work with us to identify suitable vulnerable 
candidates from the Agfhan Ismailis in Karachi.  UNHCR and 
NGOs welcomed our proposal to hold a U.S. resettlement 
workshop later in the year.  Refcoords also looked at the 
possibility of processing Iranian religious minorities in 
Islamabad.  End summary. 
 
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Significant Numbers in the Past 
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3. (SBU) Cairo-based Regional Refugee Coordinator Cheyne 
joined with Islamabad RefCoord Summers from October 3-8 to 
review the likely refugee resettlement caseload in Pakistan. 
Kevin Quigley, Regional Director for ICMC Istanbul, 
accompanied RefCoords.  ICMC is our refugee-processing 
partner for Pakistan. 
 
4. (SBU) The USRP, working with ICMC, resettled significant 
numbers of Afghans and other nationalities from Pakistan 
prior to 9/11.  With the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, 
the focus inevitably shifted to repatriation and 
resettlement numbers dropped significantly.  The USRP 
subsequently downsized its processing operation in Pakistan 
accordingly although ICMC maintained a small sub-office in 
Islamabad to deal with a continuing but somewhat smaller 
caseload. 
 
5. (SBU) Cheyne and Quigley visited Islamabad and Peshawar 
earlier in the year (March) to review the caseload and to 
evaluate the scope for increasing the numbers from Pakistan. 
It was felt that despite efforts to repatriate the many 
Afghans in the country there should be significant numbers 
of residual cases who would never return and for whom third 
country resettlement would be the only realistic solution. 
UNHCR subsequently suggested a follow-up visit in October 
(after the census of Afghans in Pakistan) to review the 
situation, to estimate a realistic caseload, and to work 
with UNHCR to increase referrals accordingly.  RefCoords met 
with UNHCR offices in Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi.  They 
also met with the Embassy's DHS officer, with NGOs, and with 
the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 
 
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Misconceptions About the US Program 
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6. (SBU) The timing of the visit was opportune since UNHCR 
had recently taken on two new key staff members, Senior 
Protection Officer, Beat Schuler, and Resettlement Officer, 
Laura Almirall.  In talks with the International Rescue 
Committee (IRC) and other NGOs we found that the previous 
UNHCR protection staff had been reluctant to increase 
referrals to the USRP because they had assumed that the U.S. 
program was hopelessly stalled with the augmented security 
screening procedures introduced after 9/11.  This attitude 
had gained some currency in the refugee community in 
Pakistan and cases that would have been suitable for the 
USRP, were instead being diverted to the Canadian and 
Australian programs. 
 
7. (SBU) We were able to clarify the situation noting that 
the U.S. process was now predictable and should be 
relatively prompt with the presence of a full time DHS 
officer in Islamabad and the maximum time taken for most SAO 
clearances now reduced to around 35-40 days.  The U.S. 
program could process refugees as fast as, if not faster 
than any other resettlement country.   This struck a 
responsive chord with the new staff at UNHCR in Islamabad 
and with its sub-office in Peshawar and with the NGOs who 
now seem more positive and more enthusiastic about the 
prospect of working more closely with the USRP. 
 
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Resettlement of Vulnerable Cases Need Not Undermine 
Repatriation 
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8. (SBU) It was agreed that while the main focus should 
continue to be on repatriation, there was considerable scope 
for building up third country resettlement as a solution for 
the most vulnerable cases in such a way that did not 
undermine repatriation efforts.  The Peshawar sub-office of 
UNHCR alone anticipates that it will refer 40 cases (200 
individuals) to the US before the end of calendar 2005 and a 
further caseload of around 150 (500-600 individuals) during 
CY 2006.  Additional caseloads should also be forthcoming 
from Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi. UNHCR undertook to 
collaborate more with NGOs to identify vulnerable cases for 
referral to the USRP. UNHCR will reach out to NGOs in the 
future requesting candidates for possible resettlement. IRC 
was particularly receptive to the idea of identifying 
suitable resettlement candidates from its work with 
vulnerable cases in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). 
Most of the referrals in the short term will be extremely 
vulnerable Afghan cases, e.g., women at risk, single women 
heads of household etc., in addition to a number of Iraqi, 
Iranian and Somali cases. 
 
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Possible Group Referral - Afghan Tajiks 
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9. (SBU) We also discussed with UNHCR Peshawar a possible 
group submission of 130 Afghan Tajik families currently in 
the NWFP.  UNHCR believes this group will be unable to 
return to Afghanistan. 
 
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USRP Workshop for NGOs and UNHCR 
-------------------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) We discussed the possibility of organizing a USRP 
resettlement training workshop for NGOs and UNHCR offices to 
build on their renewed enthusiasm for working with the U.S. 
program.  It was felt that such a workshop would be useful 
to educate caseworkers and protection officers about USRP 
criteria and procedures and to resolve any concerns they 
might have about the USRP.  UNHCR and IRC welcomed the idea 
and we will work with ICMC to organize a workshop in 
Islamabad (and possibly Peshawar) in November or December. 
 
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Afghan Ismailis 
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11. (SBU)  We met with Focus (part of the Agha Khan 
Foundation), the NGO that has assumed responsibility for the 
care and protection of the few thousand Afghan Ismailis in 
Pakistan - most of them in Karachi.  During the March visit 
Focus had expressed interest in developing a pilot program 
of referrals of Ismaili vulnerable cases (women-at-risk, 
single women heads of household etc).  Focus had since 
retreated from this proposal following UNHCR advice that the 
U.S. resettlement program took too long.  Focus was happy to 
receive our assurance that the U.S. program was fully 
functional and ready to work with the organization to 
resettle eligible case - in a way that did not undermine the 
organization's efforts to repatriate the majority of the 
Ismailis in Pakistan.  The Executive Officer of Focus 
Pakistan, Karim Nayani offered to put this to a Focus board 
meeting to be held in Nairobi on October 7 
 
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Iranian Religious Minorities 
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12. (SBU) During the visit we also discussed the possibility 
of using ICMC Pakistan to process Iranian religious 
minorities for resettlement.  We will discuss this further 
with PRM/A. 
 
Ricciardone