Provinces reluctant to keep illegal refugees

Security threat major reason for reluctance

ISLAMABAD: The four provinces in a high-profile, inter-ministerial meeting have decided that they are not ready to keep undocumented and illegal Afghan refugees in the country while the federal cabinet will decide their fate in the coming weeks.

The meeting recently held by the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions in Islamabad was attended by all stakeholders including state agencies and representatives of provinces through home departments.

According to sources, every province expressed openly security as a major reason behind their refusal to oppose any more stay for the refugees.

The ministry figures suggest that there are about 0.5 million illegal or undocumented refugees in the country while about 0.89 million are the ones who during the last one year got themselves registered for Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC). The highest number of ACC holders is in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, with 0.38 million, followed by Balochistan 0.26 million while the rest of the provinces also have scores of ACC holders.



While those holding Proof of Registration (POR) cards – those termed as legal refugees – are 1.4 million and their stay in the country as per the federal government’s decision expires by the end of this month.

According to the sources, Punjab stated clearly that it was not ready to keep illegal refugees even a day more as it was creating serious security and administrative issues for provincial authorities.

The committee agreed that the minutes of the meeting and the decisions taken there would be finalised in the form of a summary and forwarded to the federal cabinet which would decide the fate of illegal refugees.

Earlier this week, United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi visited Pakistan and urged the federal government to extend validity of legal refugees beyond September 2018.

About the extension to POR card holders, an official of the ministry stated on the condition of anonymity that elections in Afghanistan were going to be held in October and it was more likely that the cabinet extended their stay further till next year.

“During the winter, repatriation stops and resumes in March so its likely extension may be given till March 2019,” said an official privy to the developments.

The stakeholders also agreed that the issue of illegal refugees and repatriation of those documented would be taken up in Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan on Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).

The forum has been established for AfPak action plan for peace and solidarity in five categories on military-to-military contact, intelligence, diplomatic issues, trade and sharing of data about repatriation of the refugees.

The meeting of APAPPS is likely to be held from September 24 to 27 while a final date has yet to be agreed upon.