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The United Nations urged Pakistan on Thursday to revise its plan to repatriate 2.4 million Afghan refugees by 2009, saying the strategy was unworkable and could fuel militancy. Pakistan announced the schedule last year, largely in response to international criticism over cross-border attacks by Taliban militants who Pakistan says often shelter in refugee camps.

“People are not commodities,” Kilian Kleinschmidt, assistant representative in Pakistan for the UN refugee agency, told The Associated Press. “The strategy based on the policy that all the Afghans should be repatriated by 2009 needs to be revised and reviewed.”

The repatriations are meant to be voluntary, but the vast majority of the refugees who have registered in Pakistan say they do not want to return to Afghanistan. They lack land to settle on and fear fighting between Taliban militants and Nato and Afghan government forces.

On Thursday, Pakistan acknowledged that conditions in Afghanistan made it unlikely it could reach its repatriation target – but it said it still aimed for most of the refugees to go back by the end of 2009.

“We will give it our best shot,” said Imran Zeb Khan, Pakistan`s commissioner for Afghan refugees. He appealed to Afghanistan to provide land and to the international community to fund development work for returning refugees.

“We don`t want Pakistan alone to carry this burden. Our concerns should be addressed. Just saying that since 2.4 million people can`t return so Pakistan can keep them as long as situation in Afghanistan does not improve — that`s something we cannot accept,” he said.

The UN says more camp closures and mass repatriations could backfire because refugees would likely return as illegal migrants. ”It could even push a number of these returnees into the hands of militants. It could be counterproductive and really affect regional stability,” Kleinschmidt said.

The Afghan government predicts it will be able to absorb just 1 million returning refugees in the next five years. Millions have already returned from Pakistan and Iran since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

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