Ministry silent over Afghan refugee registration

SAFRON secretary says PM had given a go-ahead about the process in March 2015

ISLAMABAD: Even after the passage of six months, the Ministry of Interior and Narcotics has not replied to a letter of the National Database Regulatory Authority to document the unregistered Afghan refugees in the country.

Members of a National Assembly’s standing committee met on Tuesday in parliament to discuss an assurance given by the Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) in August 2013 in the National Assembly about the registration of refugees and planning for their repatriation.

The members were taken aback at the revelation of secretary of SAFRON Tariq Khan that “the reply is awaited from the interior ministry about the memorandum of understanding between NADRA and (the) latter.”

Khan added that SAFRON had suggested the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the registration of refugees but for the last six months there is no reply from the interior ministry.

He told The Express Tribune that the prime minister had given a go-ahead about the process in March 2015 and the ministry of finance had already released Rs170 million to NADRA.

The members of the committee Malik Abrar, Munir Azhar and Khanan Khail expressed displeasure over the attitude of the ministry.

The chairperson of the committee Afzal Khokhar asked a joint secretary from the ministry about the status, who replied the latter had nothing to do with the registration of the refugees. Unsatisfied, the chairperson and other members snubbed the official for coming to the committee unprepared.

SAFRON’s secretary said there were a number of Afghans who did not want to register themselves though NADRA had blocked their cards as well. “To date there are 1.45 million registered Afghans in the country while in 2015 around 55,000 families were repatriated to Afghanistan,” he said.

He said that the number of undocumented Afghans is over 1.5 million. Replying to a question about families returning to Pakistan after getting $200, he stated that the biometric system has been finalised for such refugees and it would not be possible to get back once they leave the country.

The chairperson asked the officials from NADRA and interior ministry to resolve the issue and report in the next meeting.

In January this year, the prime minister granted six months of temporary extension to the registration of the Afghan refugees whose legal stay in Pakistan expired in December 2015. It was the sixth extension of its kind to the refugees with Proof of Registration (PoR) cards for the legal stay till June 30.

Balochistan and K-P have been resisting the registration of undocumented refugees and demanding their repatriation from the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2016.