More than 1,000 Afghans were registered at the weekend as the government has started a landmark exercise to issue them identity cards for the very first time.
The countrywide registration, which started on Sunday and will continue till the end of the year, is a follow-up to a government census last year that counted 3.04 million Afghans who arrived in Pakistan after the 1979 Soviet invasion and are still living in the country.
According to the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR), over 580,000 refugees had been repatriated since then, leaving an estimated 2.5 million Afghans still in Pakistan.
The government has already made it clear that only those counted in the 2005 census are eligible for registration exercise, granting them a Proof of Registration (PoR) card. Valid for three years, the card recognises them as Afghan citizens living in Pakistan.
The UN refugee agency is helping the government to raise $6 million needed for the exercise. "This is the largest-ever registration by any host country of a mixed population in a protracted situation," said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR's Assistant Representative in Pakistan.
"UNHCR has been assisting the government in the planning and execution of this undertaking for over two years... we hope it will further strengthen the asylum space for those Afghans in need of international protection."
Given the huge population involved, Afghans are the largest group of concern to UNHCR, and the majority of them are hosted in Pakistan, the scale of the registration is also massive. The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has set up some 100 centers around the country for the 10-week exercise.
There is great challenge for the government and UN refugee agency to register only eligible Afghans.
The logistics are also daunting. To register, entire Afghan families must approach designated centres in the same area where they took the census.
In addition to the Afghans registered so far, more than 4,000 other Afghans have been registered in pilot exercises that started in Jhang and Chitral earlier in October.
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