Pakistan to register 1.4m Afghan refugees by July: minister

Afghan minister for refugee repatriation says documents do not show that refugees were harassed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to register 1.4 million Afghan refugees currently living in the country illegally by July, the Minister for States said Frontier Regions  Lt General (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch on Wednesday.

There are an estimated three million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan either officially or unofficially, most of whom left their country to escape conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. But they are viewed with deep suspicion inside Pakistan and routinely accused by authorities of harbouring militants, increasingly so after the December 16 attack on a school in Peshawar.

"We have agreed to form a committee to ensure registration of unregistered Afghan refugees, which will be completed in four months," Baloch said at a press conference with his Afghan counterpart.

The minister said there were 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees and another 1.4 million unregistered Afghan refugees in the country.

The minister added that representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan and UNHCR would contact to global donor agencies for help in repatriating the refugees once the registration process is complete.

Pakistan had earlier set a target of repatriating all Afghan refugees by December this year; however, the minister said the deadline might be extended as it was a "difficult" task.

Afghan minister for Refugees and Repatriation, Sayed Hossein Alimi Balkhi said there was a perception in Afghanistan that Afghan refugees are being harassed in Pakistan after the Taliban massacred nearly 150 people, mostly children, at a Peshawar school.

"But document suggested that there were no such things, the Pakistani people are very generous and kind to their Afghan guests," he added.

However, in February the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said more than 30,000 Afghans living in Pakistan had returned home since the start of the year after coming under intense scrutiny following the Peshawar school attack.

The dignified repatriation of Afghan refugees was top priority of his country and the national government of Afghanistan, Balkhi added.

Government releases Rs1.5bn for TDPs: Dar

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the government has released an amount of Rs1.5 billion for repatriation and rehabilitation of Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs), Radio Pakistan reported.

He disclosed this during a meeting with a two-member delegation at the GHQ on Wednesday.

Financial requirements and measures for repatriation and rehabilitation of the TDPs were reviewed in detail in the meeting.