Repatriation plan: Afghan team arrives to discuss refugee issues

Delegation will meet Pakistani authorities to finalise refugees’ repatriation process

ISLAMABAD: Afghan Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi said a comprehensive repatriation plan is being drawn under the supervision of President Ashraf Ghani.

He made this remark soon after his arrival with a nine-member delegation in Islamabad for talks with the Pakistani authorities.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government started a campaign against the unregistered Afghan refugees after the December 16 Taliban attack on APS in Peshawar which killed more than 150 schoolchildren including staff members.

However, some Afghan officials claimed that the crackdown has been kicked off against all the refugees across Pakistan. They also said thousands of refugees have already been expelled since then and hundreds more cross the border daily to avoid arrest in Pakistan.

“The minister, leading a nine-member delegation, has arrived for talks with the Pakistani leaders and officials of the UN refugee agency,” an Afghan embassy official told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

Shortly after his arrival the minister met nearly 160 representatives of the refugees and who conveyed their complaints to the minister, an Afghan embassy official said on the condition of anonymity.

The Afghan minister told the refugees that a comprehensive repatriation strategy is being developed under the supervision of President Ashraf Ghani.

He said that a 13-member committee will be formed to monitor progress on the strategy. "Every problem you face has a solution," Balkhi told the meeting after refugees shared their problems with the visiting delegation.

The UNHCR spokesperson in Islamabad, Duniya Khan, told The Express Tribune that the Afghan minister will also attend a tripartite meeting on March 11 during his visit. She did not provide more details.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2015.