Two million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan have been registered since last October in an exercise by the government to provide Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to those who were counted in the 2005 census.
According to the UNHCR statement, the PoR card, valid for three years, recognises the bearer as an Afghan citizen living temporarily in Pakistan. Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority is conducting the exercise with the support of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) and UNHCR. Under the memorandum of understanding for this exercise, only those Afghans who took part in the 2005 census in Pakistan are eligible to be registered.
However, some eligible Afghans could not find their names in the census database for reasons ranging from spelling discrepancies to the fact that they gave false names during the census that they have since forgotten. "We are really making an effort to capture as many eligible Afghans as we can," said Indrika Ratwatte, the UNHCR official in charge of the registration.
"Early this year, we asked the Afghan elders, CAR and Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR) to provide names of Afghans who were rejected and who should technically be in the census database".
The government of Pakistan has reiterated that upon completion of registration, Afghans without PoR cards will be subject to relevant national laws. Afghans are constantly reminded that registration is free of cost and that any offer or demand for payment must be reported to UNHCR and the authorities for disciplinary action.
Fifteen weeks after the start of registration, the exercise has been completed in Sindh province, Azad Kashmir and most parts of Punjab. It will continue in areas with a high density of Afghans still to be registered, including Islamabad, urban Quetta and Peshawar.
"We are now in the final phase of registration," said UNHCR's Ratwatte. "Nadra is enhancing the capacity in the remaining centres to process as many eligible Afghans as quickly as possible.
"In addition to the issuance of PoR cards, the $6 million registration exercise is collecting key data on the remaining Afghan population in Pakistan in order to seek durable solutions to their long-term displacement.