The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged the major donor countries to contribute in repatriation and rehabilitation of the withstanding return of Afghans from Pakistan. UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, Judy Cheng Hopkins said this at the end of her five-day visit to Pakistan, reports APP.
While focusing on the UNHCR's efforts she informed the press that, since the day UNHCR volunteered repatriation from Pakistan and Iran in 2002, some five million Afghans have returned home. Around three million are still left in these two countries. Since assuming her post, Hopkins visited two Afghan refugee camps in the North West Frontier Province to meet the refugees. APP sources said, around a million of Afghan refugees are currently living in over 80 refugee camps in Pakistan.
The UNHCR's representative along with Pakistani senior officials witnessed the process of voluntary repatriation and appreciated the government's in this regard She held meeting with the Minister for the States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), Ministry of Interior, Governor of the North West Frontier Province and other senior officials. Hopkins signed a three-year extended tripartite agreement with the Pakistan and Afghan governments, which allows the stay of Afghans in Pakistan followed by their voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan.
A UNHCR-supported government registration drive from October 2006 to February 2007 issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards for three years to 2.15 million Afghans living in Pakistan, allowing them temporary stay. Out of those, some 100,000 have already been repatriated to Afghanistan.
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