DUBAI, 12 November 2007 (IRIN) - Contents:

AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Tehran expels 8,000 Afghans AFGHANISTAN: NGOs vulnerable to criminal violence and insurgency BANGLADESH: World Bank committed to fight poverty NEPAL: Families want answers to cases of the disappeared NEPAL: 5,000 families safe to go home PAKISTAN: Government cracks down on civil society PAKISTAN: Militants threaten to burn Swat camp PAKISTAN: Millions lack access to mental healthcare

AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Tehran expels 8,000 Afghans

The government of Afghanistan has called on Iran to stop deporting thousands of Afghan citizens without work permits or refugee status, Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told IRIN on 5 November.

"Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to any mass deportation during winter," said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman for the ministry, adding that the country lacked the capacity to integrate a large number of deportees.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75152

AFGHANISTAN: NGOs vulnerable to criminal violence and insurgency

Civilians working for NGOs in Afghanistan say their work is being constrained by insecurity as criminal groups and Taliban insurgents target aid workers.

Ahmad Shah Shierzai quit his job as a doctor with a local NGO as soon as he was released by Taliban insurgents on 20 October in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan. He and two others, who had been working at a district medical facility on 16 October, were abducted outside Kandahar city by armed men linked to Taliban rebels.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75190

BANGLADESH: World Bank committed to fight poverty

World Bank president Robert Zoellick has assured the government of Bangladesh it will continue to help the country and its people address poverty. A Bank-supported agricultural technology project worth US$65 million is in the final stage of approval and will be replicated and continued for the next 15 years.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75169

NEPAL: Families want answers to cases of the disappeared

Families of hundreds of people who went missing during the armed conflict in Nepal want the cases of their disappeared relatives to be resolved. For the past six years, Ram Kumar Bhandari has been struggling to find out about his father, Tej Bahadur, who disappeared after government security forces arrested him in 2001 on suspicion of supporting the Maoist rebels.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75147

NEPAL: 5,000 families safe to go home

More than 5,000 displaced families taking refuge in Nepalgunj, a Nepalese city adjoining India, will be able to return home by December, according to aid agencies.

"There is now hope among the displaced families that they will be able to live in their home villages without fear of being forced out of their homes again," activist Bhola Mahat from the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), a local human rights NGO, told IRIN on 7 November.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75187

PAKISTAN: Government cracks down on civil society

A senior UN expert has condemned the rounding-up of civil society leaders and activists in Pakistan after the declaration of emergency rule in the country. "It's not just emergency law. It's martial law," Asma Jahangir, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IRIN from her home in Lahore, in the east of the country, on 5 November.

Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion and beliefs, was placed under house arrest for 90 days just hours after the announcement.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75150

PAKISTAN: Militants threaten to burn Swat camp

Efforts to establish a displaced persons camp in Pakistan's Swat Valley are under threat from militants fighting the government, according to aid officials.

"At present, there is no shortage of food or tents, but without any security, people don't want to come," Mohammad Munir, district manager of Pakistan's Red Crescent Society in Swat, told IRIN on 6 November from the town of Kanju, near the district capital Saidu Sharif.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75171

PAKISTAN: Millions lack access to mental healthcare

There are no exact numbers for the mentally ill in Pakistan, due largely to the associated stigma, but some estimates put the figure at more than 14 million people, out of a population of some 160 million.

Speaking at a seminar to mark World Health Day in October, Ijaz Haider, of the Allama Iqbal Medical College in Lahore, reported that "mental problems had increased from 6 percent to 9 percent in the population in the past decade".

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75204

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