Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron), Najamuddin Khan, has said 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees, residing in Pakistan would be sent back to homeland with dignity. As their repatriation would be in voluntary basis while the same number of unregistered refugees would be dealt with law of land, says a press release here on Tuesday.
The minister expressed these views, while chairing a meeting held here on Tuesday to review the Afghan Refugees Repatriation Strategy (ARRS). The minister said the draft of ARRS has been finalised in consultation with all stakeholders, including the provincial governments. The draft will be got approved till the end of this year.
The minister said Pakistan has been hosting over three million Afghan refugees for almost three decades. The present number of Afghan refugees is almost 3.2 million including 1.5 million non-registered Afghan refugees. The minister said the targets of the strategy for repatriation of Afghan refugees for the year 2007-09 framed in consultation with all the relevant stakeholder, could not be met out due to security situation in the region, lack of conducive environment and absorption capacity in Afghanistan.
Subsequently, the repatriation strategy 2007-2009 is being reviewed beyond 2009, which will be revised on a medium term basis and linked with Afghanistan National Development Strategy for the period of 2009-2013. To regulate and manage the refugees in Pakistan in future, a revised Management and Repatriation Strategy for Afghan Refugees for the year 2010-2012 has been framed which encompasses all aspects of the refugees' issue including repatriation and reintegration, he added.