U.N. worries about growing number of fake refugees

TAKHT-E-PUL, Afghanistan -- Growing numbers of Afghans are submitting fraudulent refugee claims in what is seen as an organized scheme involving officials both inside and outside the country that is drying up U.N. assistance for the neediest.

An estimated 10,000 people, or 10 percent of the nearly 100,000 people who have come through one southern Afghan way station since mid-March, have been rejected for assistance, said Monica Sandri, an official with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the southern city of Kandahar.

The large number of bogus cases are straining a system that is rapidly running out of money. Two other aid agencies -- the U.N. World Food Program and the International Organization for Migration -- have already said shortfalls threaten to curtail their programs.

"They are drawing on the resources of the organization and taking money from real refugees. This is a serious problem and it has to stop," Sandri said Friday.

Though the money given to assist refugees is relatively small, in this poor nation, it is a small fortune to those who get the help.

A family of five -- two parents and three children -- can receive as much as $110 for a trip to nearby Kandahar and 336 pounds of food, enough for three months.

Pocket money, sell food

Fake refugees allegedly pocket the money and sell the food for a tidy profit in a country where some people make as little as $10 a month.

"It's very lucrative if you go two or three times," Sandri said. One man, officials said, was arrested by local police recently on his third trip.

UNHCR officials are openly discussing the possibility that a well-organized scam is being run from neighboring Pakistan with the collusion of some officials.

Aid officials say most of the fake refugees are either people living permanently in Pakistan, local Afghan residents posing as returnees, or even Pakistanis posing as Afghans.

Professional refugees

"It's a very well-organized system in Pakistan. They have started doing it as a profession," Sandri said. "Pakistan should take action to stop this .... The only place it can be controlled is Pakistan. They have to stop this at the start. We can't do it here."

Aid officials are expecting an increase in Afghan returnees with the election this week of Hamid Karzai as head of the state, and the promise of stability for the first time in more than two decades.

Pakistan was host to 2 million Afghan refugees during the past 23 years of war, while Iran had 1.5 million. More than 650,000 people have returned from Pakistan since March, the UNHCR said. About 75,000 Afghans have returned from other countries.