Movement of people across Afghan border Country lacks migration management policy: UNHCR official

Acting representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR), Maya Ameratunga, said here that Pakistan and Afghanistan governments did not have the data of refugees crossing either side of the border on a regular basis, thereby making it difficult for the UN agency to compile exact figures of the movement of the people.
"The porous Pak-Afghan border is unlikely to ensure settlement of refugees in their home country as fears of security for them still existed there," she added.
She was speaking to a group of newsmen during an interactive session held at a local hotel on Monday.
Elaborating, she said that "the porous Pak-Afghan border with a weak guarding system largely washes away the UNHCR efforts", besides making the global donors disinterested in carrying out a drive aimed at ensuring a voluntary, but permanent repatriation of refugees from the host-country.
Another major issue which the Afghans living in Pakistan as refugees might face related to their third generation as thousands of them were unaware of their ancestors' country of origin, she said, adding that Afghan refugees descended now into almost third generation dwelling in different parts of Pakistan since their first exodus in 1979 during Cold War era.
Advocating that the repatriation of refugees should be voluntary and not forced, she feared the continuing uncertainty in East and South Afghanistan might force the returnees to flee again towards their previous host nation. She said the uncertain border also had several illegal passageways which returnees might use to come back to Pakistan after repatriation.
Pakistan lacked Migration Management Policy (MMP) which implicated the country into security problems, she said, adding that the non-existent MMP also pushed away the donors from sponsoring the drive to ensure a durable resettlement of refugees in Afghanistan. She felt the weak border guarding was contributing to the problems already hindering the repatriation drive.
Replying to query, Maya said that the Pakistani government did allow the militants during cold war era and gave them shelter as refugees in 1980s.
However, at present, refugees entering Pakistan were being subjected to strict screening by security officials.
To another query, the official of the UNHCR said that she was unaware that militants disguising as refugees were infiltrating into the country.
The host countries provide all basic rights to the refugees after allowing them shelter, she said, adding that these rights include healthcare and education facilities and job opportunities. The jobs, which the host countries offer to refugees, might not include government offices, she added.
Answering a question, she clarified that the UNHCR did not provide any help to a refugee, who is suspected as terrorist, in the host-country. "The UNHCR doesn't rescue terror suspects," she maintained.
The first drive for the registration of Afghan refugees began after 25 years in 2005, Associate Communication/Public Information Officer, Duniya Aslam Khan told newsmen.
She said that a census undertaken by the government in collaboration with UNHCR had indicated that three million unregistered Afghans have been living in the country.
She pointed out that every Afghan living in Pakistan was not a refugee rather he may be enjoying the status of an 'economic migrant'. She hoped Pakistan would soon have its law for refugees.
Some 2.1 million refugees were documented during October 2006 and February 2007, she said, adding that renewal of Proof of Registration Cards by the Nadra for 1.6 million refugees was carried out in June 2014.
She apprehended that de-registration of refugees might also cause problems if they failed to resettle in their home country as once the data was omitted from the list it would make the process confused in re-enlisting the same people as asylum seekers.
Despite not being signatory to the 1951 Refugees Convention, Pakistan still hosts around 1.5m registered Afghan refugees and of them 67,000 live in Sindh province alone.
However, Pakistan, under the Customary International Law, continued to support the UNHCR since 1979 to give shelter to the Afghan refugees on its soil.
According to the UNHCR, some 3.8m Afghan refugees have left Pakistan voluntarily over the past years.
Both Pakistan and Iran in view of `uncomfortable' situation prevailing in Afghanistan have extended the repatriation date for Afghan refugees till 2015.