Dustbowl deal for Afghan refugees

By staff and wire reports

(CNN) -- An Afghan refugee woman waits for her documents to be checked by authorities.

Others are not so lucky having lost their identity papers in the squalid Jallozai camp, a sprawling unofficial dustbowl near Peshawar, Pakistan.

Finally there is fresh hope for these migrants as Pakistan bows to international pressure by accepting new refugees from its drought and war-torn neighbor.

The fate of these women will now rest in the hands of a joint United Nations project, one that will decide the fate of an estimated 180,000 refugees.

The lucky ones will remain in northwestern Pakistan, this time in official camps under an umbrella of international protection and assistance.

The same may not be said for those who will have to return to Afghanistan.

The vulnerable, unaccompanied minors and elderly, as well as medically unfit and those worst hit by the three-year drought have been earmarked for support, whereas economic migrants will be returned.

No figures have been announced on how many people could end up back in Afghanistan, even if they do they will arrive in yet another camp, this time in Jalalabad, which has been established by the ruling Taliban militia.

A 23-year-old problem

For Pakistan it has become an age-old problem. The long and porous border with Afghanistan, allows hundreds of refugees to cross daily without scrutiny from border guards.

Over the past 23-years Pakistan's North Western Frontier Province has been host to two million refugees, some of who originally fled the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Of these two million, 1.2 million live in 127 major refugee camps. The rest are scattered in towns and cities throughout the country.

It has also become a domestic crisis as tens of thousands of people languish in the refugee camps of Afghanistan's western province of Harat.

Critical border control

Iran and the northern Central Asian countries have all sealed their borders to stop Afghan refugees flooding their respective frontiers.

Iran has also been under fire from the United Nations for apparently forcing an estimated 80,000 refugees to return to Afghanistan.

Pakistan has even been accused of actively encouraging Afghans to return home, Islamabad says that with a burgeoning population and a waning economy it cannot afford the burden of new refugees.

However, the recent agreement with the United Nations changes this situation and U.N. officials will now register new refugees.

With no end to the plight of the Afghan refugees, the United Nations is calling it one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.