The voluntary repatriation of 1.6 million Afghan refugees is likely to become a herculean task for tripartite commission, comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and UN agency refugees (UNHCR).
Though the UNHCR has claimed increased in the number of repatriated Afghans, but ground realities are presenting a totally different picture as a large number of refugees after the closure of camps have been mixed with the local population and they are not at least less interested in going back to their home land.
Talking to this scribe, Rasheed, 24, a resident of Logur province of Afghanistan said that a large number of refugees preferring on permanently living in Pakistan. He said that they along with their other relatives are living on Phandu Road, Peshawar. Rasheed said that their family migrated to Pakistan in early 1980s and he was born in Peshawar. To a question, he confided that he had neither visited any part of Afghanistan nor native area in their country. However, he said that he is a register refugee and possessor of POR card.
Regarding the normalization of situation in Afghanistan, he said that it could not be trusted and after the withdrawal of US feared the arrival of further worst situation. Furthermore, he said they are unaware of the conditions of the infrastructure of civic and residential facilities in Afghanistan.
Similar views were also expressed by dozens of other Afghan refugees, who termed the repatriation package comprising of $150 and other household utensils worth $50 as insufficient. Furthermore, due to poor check on the repatriation process, a large number of refugees are misusing the package. The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and the UN Refugee Agency last month launched the final report of the Population Profiling, Verification and Response (PPVR) survey of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
The PPVR survey 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 per cent of the total Afghan refugees' 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 return 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 per cent, of Afghan population are under the age of 18, and that most were born and raised in Pakistan. Pashtuns constitute the majority of the population (82 per cent) followed by Tajiks (5 per cent), Uzbeks (4 per cent) and others.
A total of 22.53 per cent of the Afghan refugees were found to be economically active, of which males account for 85.59 per cent of the total work force. The Afghan work force mostly comprises adults (age 25 to 59), while 31.3 per cent is made up of youth (age 15 to 24).
These two age groups amount to almost 90 per cent of the Afghan refugees. Many are currently working as unskilled labourers - mostly as sales workers, or in the construction, handicraft and transportation sectors. The Federal Minister for SAFRON, Engineer Shaukatullah had recently visited Afghanistan to inspect arrangements and facilities for the refugees in Afghanistan. However, sources said that he was satisfied from the arrangements in this regard. According to agreement on tripartite commission December 31, 2012 is deadline for the repatriation of all refugees.