“Illegal aliens including unregistered [Afghan] refugees are breeding humanitarian crisis – they also remain a key source of spreading terrorism in Pakistan,” observed Senator Fateh Muhammad, who was heading Senate Sub-Committee of Interior on Thursday.
The committee was reviewing issue of illegal immigrants in the country
He said border management is the biggest issue as around 20,000 unregistered people cross Pak-Afghan border every day; “But no one even bothered to ask how you are entering Pakistan,” he added.
Briefing the panel, Chief Commissioner Afghan Refugees Dr Ahmed Zaib said it is believed that almost 1.5 million Afghan refugees, living in Pakistan, are unregistered.
The panel was also informed that tens of hundreds of Pakistani families were involved in facilitating aliens, including Afghan refugees, to get their Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) and passports.
Appearing before the parliamentary panel, NADRA Chairman Imtiaz Tajwar said the registration authority has sent names of 99,867 suspected foreigners to intelligence agencies for investigation.
Officials of Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) informed the committee that over 40,000 Afghan refugees, who are reportedly not registered, were creating trouble for law enforcement agencies in Girdi Jungle, Balochistan.
“All these people are living illegally as their camp was officially closed years ago when it became a hub of terrorist activities,” said a senior Safron official.
Pakistan, United States and Afghanistan had mutually decided to close this camp after such reports emerged, chief commissioner for Afghan refugees said. “Even the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) refused to finance two refugees’ camps – Girdi Jungle and Pir Alizai – in Balochistan years back,” he added.
NADRA chief told the committee that NADRA with the help of National Alien Registration Authority (NARA) had registered 3,500 aliens under the biometric system.
The committee, however, showed dissatisfaction at NARA’s performance and said it has failed to complete its targets in spite of the fact that it was established way back in 2000.
Officials, however, told the panel that NARA is operating in Karachi, where it is assigned to verify status of 1.8 million aliens counted under a survey by the provincial government.
The committee was informed that 37% of Afghan refugees are living outside the camps and roaming around the country, which according to Safron officials, is not a legal practice.
It must be noted that Afghan refugees live in 41 camps, 29 camps of which are in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa, 10 in Balochistan while one camp is in Mianwali, Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2014.
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