Daily Times

PESHAWAR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Assistant High Commission for Protection Volker Turk has said that Afghan migrants living in Pakistan would not be expelled to Afghanistan against their wishes and will be required to voluntarily migrate to Afghanistan.

This he said on Thursday while visiting UNHCR Voluntarily Repatriation Centre at Peshawar Chamkani along with UNHCR Director for Asia Bureau Daisy Dell, UNHCR Pakistan Representative Indrika Ratwatte and UNHCR Head of Peshawar Oscar Mundia .

While sharing his views with the media Mr. Volker said that they recently met with Afghanistan Officials in Afghanistan and discussed the issues of the recently returned people. Turk shared that Afghan government has ensured full support and commitment to resolve the issues of these affected people.

He said that the Afghan government was facing numerous challenges including a law and order situation, land, health and education, however, despite these challenges they agreed to accommodate the return of thier people from other countries.

He said that the travelling expenditures for return refugees has decreased from $400 to $200 per individual as the amount has diverted from Afghanistan’s development work and support in the developmental work for these people.

Earlier, the Afghan refugee’s elders presented the lists of complaints regarding their issues in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. The elder’s complained that UNHCR has decreased the travel expenditure from $400 to $200 per head while their travel expenditures and vehicles rent have increased with time. They also complained that mostly PoR cards of refugees in Pakistan have expired while police harassed them at different locations. An elder who was also a member of the Afghan refugees committee in Pakistan said their PoR cards have expired while government has so far not issued the new cards due to which they cannot apply for driving licenses, bank account and other governmental work.

He requested the senior authorities to tackle this issue with the Pakistani government and explain a policy and resolve their issues. They also complained about the non availability of education, health, electricity and clean drinking facilities in refugee’s camps.

However, on response of all these complaints UNHCR Pakistan Representative Indrika Ratwatte shared that on February 7, Pakistan Cabinet Division has extended PoR card time till December 2017 and all PoR cards have been expired will be valid till the end of this year.