Around 20 percent of the working Afghan refugees have collectively invested over Rs 18 billion in their business in Pakistan, revealed the final report of the Population Profiling, Verification and Response (PPVR) survey of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, released here Thursday.
The report of the survey was launched jointly by Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and the UN Refugee Agency, which examined the specific needs of Afghans in Pakistan, and generated a more accurate and detailed description of the refugee population, including information about intention to return to Afghanistan, livelihoods, socio-economic and legal conditions.
The PPVR exercise ended in December 2011 after survey teams had interviewed almost 1 million Afghan refugees, about 65 percent of the total Afghan refugee population in Pakistan. The survey revealed that close to 360,000 Afghan refugees (of the total 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees) already plan to return to Afghanistan in the coming years. Voluntary repatriation, which has seen more than 3.8 million Afghans returned home in the past ten years, remains at the centre of the Solution Strategy for Afghan Refugees that was endorsed at an international conference in May this year in Geneva.
Those refugees who said that they were not yet ready to return to Afghanistan cited insecurity, unemployment, and lack of shelter as some of the remaining impediments. The PPVR report indicates that the majority, 70 percent, of Afghan population are under the age of 18, and that most were born and raised in Pakistan. Pashtoons constitute the majority of the population (82 percent) followed by Tajiks (5 percent), Uzbeks (4 percent) and others.
A total of 22.53 percent of the Afghan refugees were found to be economically active, of which males account for 85.59 percent of the total work force. The Afghan work force mostly comprises adults (age 25 to 59), while 31.3 percent is made up of youth (age 15 to 24). These two age groups amount to almost 90 percent of the Afghan refugees. Many are currently working as unskilled labourers - mostly as sales workers, or in the construction, handicraft and transportation sectors.
According to the study, 70 percent of the Afghan population has one earning family member, while 6 percent of the households have no bread-winner. It also indicated that around 20 percent of the working Afghans have collectively invested over Rs 18 billion in their business in Pakistan.
Neill Wright, Representative UNHCR in Pakistan said on the occasion that, "the PPVR provides us with rich and extremely detailed comprehensive data on socio-economic issues, migration patterns, investor potential and other needs for nearly one million individual Afghan refugees. We now have reliable information on the opportunities and skills that the population in Pakistan will bring to their home country of Afghanistan when they do decide to return."
In the education sector, Wright said that the report highlights 43 percent of boys and 67 percent of girls of school-age were never enrolled. High level drop-out rates also prevent most children from completing their primary education.
"On one hand, the PPVR report database will support any new strategy or planning of the government of Pakistan for the Afghan refugee population by providing specific information on the communities; on the other hand, it will also support the Government of Afghanistan in its efforts to enhance development investment for re-integration of the returning Afghan refugee population to their country", Wright added.
Joint Secretary SAFRON, Dr Imran Zeb acknowledged that the government of Pakistan's new plan for the future voluntary repatriation and management of Afghan refugees are awaiting Prime Ministerial and subsequent Cabinet approval. He pointed out that well-planned and strategic interventions that are based on solid data can bring relief to not only millions of refugees living inside Pakistan, but in a way can also catalyze our efforts to support voluntary repatriation with dignity and honour.
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