Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday extended the deadline for voluntary repatriation of registered Afghan refugees until December 31 this year.

The government has extended the deadline on the request of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi.

According to the sources, Grandi asked the government during his visit to Pakistan last week to extend the stay of the Afghan refugees in the country for another three years. The government however told him that it could not host the Afghan refugees for another three years due to security and economic reasons. The Pakistani authorities said that Afghan refugees were involved in terrorist and criminal activities as well as smuggling.

According to the media wing of the Prime Minister’s Office, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and States & Frontier Regions to engage the UNHCR and government of Afghanistan for gradual relocation of refugee camps in Pakistan to Afghanistan.

Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said at a media briefing last week that Pakistan was hosting more than three million Afghan refugees and some of them had become a security risk for the country. He said that terrorists were using the refugee camps as safe havens.

Grandi praised Pakistan for hosting Afghan refugees and urged the international community to extend cooperation to Pakistan and the UNHCR to address the refugees issue. He said that refugees were an internationally shared responsibility and the world needed to address this issue.

Dr Imran Zeb, chief commissioner for refugees, told Daily Times that the government of Pakistan extended the deadline for the refugees for six months. He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the extension in the stay of the Afghan refugees. Now, registered Afghan refugees’ Proof of Registration (POR) card will be renewed for six months.

Dr Zeb said the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was taking action against unregistered Afghans.