Extending stay: UNHCR, govt may renew refugee cards

Afghan refugees were voluntarily going to Afghanistan and each person was being paid $150: UNHCR provincial head

QUETTA: The provincial head of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Charles Lynch, has said that 16,216 Afghan refugees or 3,312 families were sent to Afghanistan during the current year. The federal government and the UNHCR is devising a policy to renew or re-issue the 376,085 refugee cards issued in Balochistan that will expire on December 31, Lynch told the journalists after a voluntary repatriation ceremony of Afghan refugees at Balali camp on Saturday. He said that Afghan refugees were voluntarily going to Afghanistan and each person was being paid $150 and provided with essential commodities and medicines. “Refugees going back are being shifted to camps in Afghanistan with proper security,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2012.