The government of Pakistan will soon consider provincial plans to close a number of Afghan refugee camps, IRIN, the UN information unit, reported quoting the officials.
"We had requested the provincial governments to come up with certain realistic plans for the closure of camps and for voluntary repatriation during 2008," Imran Zeb, the government's commissioner for Afghan refugees, told in Islamabad.
"They have prepared their own plans, but as yet we have not received them formally," he said. Once they are received at the federal level, discussions would be held with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Afghan government to determine their feasibility, he said.
According to the UNHCR, there are over 80 Afghan refugee camps in the country, including 71 in the country's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and 12 in Balochistan - both bordering Afghanistan - as well as one in the Punjab Province.
The camp closure issue remains a contentious one in Pakistan, which still hosts over two 2 million Afghan refugees - one million of whom live in camps - more than seven years after the collapse of the Taliban regime in December 2001.
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