The government has announced here on Monday that it would initiate the second phase of providing registration documents to the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan as a follow-up of present census concluded in March last. According to the census carried out between late February and early March, 3,047,225 Afghans were registered in Pakistan who had arrived after December 1, 1979. The process of profiling all the details of Afghans in Pakistan has been underway for which the government and the UN Refugees Agency have sought 7 million dollars from the international donors.
Sajid Hussain Chattha, Pakistan's Secretary for the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) at a news conference here gave the statistics of Afghan refugees, who arrived after Soviet invasion on Afghanistan in 1979.
Najam Hasan, Pakistan's Chief Census Commissioner, Jehangir Khan, Commissioner Afghan Refugees and Guenet Guebre-Christos, Representative of UNHCR in Pakistan were also present on the occasion.
Sajid Chattha said that the decision to gather the refugees' data was taken mainly due to security reasons, that would ultimately help the local and international agencies.
Safron Secretary further said that the process would be started next year and added that National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) will also be given access to the details gathered from the refugees.
In a joint statement read out during the press briefing, Sajid Chattha said: "The census, carried out by the government with technical and financial assistance of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), was the first exercise ever conducted to count the number of Afghans in Pakistan."
Under the agreement, while setting the terms of the census, the UNHCR said it would accept the figures given by the government, while on the other hand, Government of Pakistan agreed that not all Afghans in the country would be of any concern to the UN Refugee Agency, the statement said.
The census, in all areas of Pakistan, counted 1,861,412 Afghans in North West, 783,545 in Balochistan, 136,780 in Sindh, 207,754 in Punjab, 44,637 in Islamabad and 13,097 in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) or the Northern Areas.
A more detailed report on the data gathered by the 3,000 census workers was being processed, and will be available by the end of May, Jehangir Khan, Commissioner Afghan Refugees said.
This will include the precise place of residence, source of livelihood, place of origin in Afghanistan, intention when to return, and other information. "This data will be vital as the Government of Pakistan and UNHCR discuss ways to manage the Afghan population who might remain in Pakistan after the expiry of the current Tripartite Agreement," said Guebre-Christos, head of UNHCR in Pakistan.
The voluntary repatriation programme, which assists Afghans wishing to return home, is conducted under a Tripartite Agreement between the UNHCR and governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan and expires next March.
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