Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has repatriated more than 300,000 Afghan refugees to their homeland from Pakistan.

UNHCR spokesman Asif Shehzad told Daily Times that this year, from January 1 until October 27, some 313,584 registered Afghans have been facilitated through voluntary repatriation programme for returning to Afghanistan.

“We have repatriated registered Afghan refugees from Pakistan to Afghanistan as many as 251,639 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 23,278 from Balochistan, 2,513 from Sindh, 31,138 from Punjab, 4,653 from Islamabad and 363 from Azad Kashmir till 27th October 2016,” Shehzad said.

He said that with the improvement in weather and the increase in cash grant from $200 to $400 per person the number of returning families is slightly increasing.

The spokesman said the repatriation remained highest during the last three months and 128,460 registered Afghan refugees have been repatriated in October, 97,808 in September and 67,060 in August.

“Since July, there has been an increase in the voluntary repatriation of registered Afghan refugees and due to this reason that an average of more than 7,000 Afghans are returning every day from the three UNHCR Voluntary Repatriation Centers. The two centers are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Chamkani and Azakhel VRC) and one centre is in Quetta.

He said that UNHCR’s mandate in Pakistan only covers registered Afghan refugees, with valid Proof of Registration (PoR) cards that stay/reside within the boundaries of the country of asylum. He said that it is also noted that the PoR, issued by the Government of Pakistan to registered Afghan refugees is an important protection document, which entitles its holder to stay in Pakistan until 31 March 2017 and it ensures that the refugees have freedom of movement within Pakistan. PoR card is not an international travel document and thus cannot be used as a visa/passport to cross international border between two countries.

The UNHCR facilitated the return of over 4.1 million registered Afghan refugees from Pakistan to Afghanistan under its voluntary repatriation program since 2002 and almost 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees are still residing in Pakistan.