500 refugee families returning every day to Afghanistan: UNHCR

[Devil Soul]

500 refugee families returning every day to Afghanistan: UNHCR
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August 29, 2016
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ISLAMABAD: The return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan is continuing and every day 500 families are going back to their country.

A spokesman of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees told APP that when the refugees return, their identity is verified through the latest IRIS test and after that they are issued registration forms.

Two centres have been established to facilitate the return of refugees. One centre is located in the Chamkani area of Peshawar which is assisting refugees returning from the areas of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Azad Kashmir and Islamabad. The other centre is set up in Quetta where refugees from Sindh and Balochistan can contact to get a date for their return and complete other formalities.

According to the spokesman, the IRIS test is conducted to ensure that the refugees should not return from Afghanistan after getting financial assistance. Around 300 trucks leave Pakistan daily to transport refugees back to Afghanistan.

 

[shah1398]

Around 300 trucks leave Pakistan daily to transport refugees back to Afghanistan.

With Chaman closed its Torkham which is seeing this movement and that too only from KPK.

 

[Dr. Abdul Basit]

Its 500 families because UNHCR can only process 500 families a day otherwise the families that want to leave is enormous. The refugees are even willing to pay for early processing but again that is not the way things have to happen. Also these are the registered families in Pakistan. more than double this number are the unregistered/illegal families that are leaving directly through Torkham Border. Major factor for this surge according to my view is the border management at Torkham and implementation of rules for which they will have to acquire a passport with valid pakistani visa in order to corss over back from Afghanistan, their registration card is not a travelling document. secondly UNHCR have doubled the grant given to them (its no 400 USD per head instead of 200 USD per head) at the time of repatriation. Keeping in view the same approach for Balochistan and KP refugees, the surge has been only in KP which directs the opinion towards border management more rather than because of doubling of grant.

 

[Sheikh Rauf]

500 per day means another 3 years ..no way!
They were our mehman let the mahman go with respect.

 

[Steve781]

Europe needs to do the same.

 

[Gentelman]

Europe needs to do the same.

Tired already before even accepting for the sh*t you created??

 

[Mo12]

Is this voluntary or being forced to leave Pakistan?

 

[muhammadali233]

Europe needs to do the same.

Pak did after 30 yrs,Europe can wait.

 

[Zibago]

Europe needs to do the same.

First host them for 30 years like we did

 

[Steve781]

Tired already before even accepting for the sh*t you created??

Yes, because we're the ones who founded the Taliban in 1993 and supported them ever since.

First host them for 30 years like we did

You're Muslim. We're not.

 

[Providence]

Europe needs to do the same.

Hey bud, the idea is pretty simple. People who accept your culture maybe not in practice wholly but in spirit at least and have some special skill which can be beneficial to the economy should be allowed.

 

[Gentelman]

Yes, because we're the ones who founded the Taliban in 1993 and supported them ever since..

Yeah Americans were!!
Through official and unofficial channels....

 

[TOPGUN]

500 is better then nothing .... not all are enemies of Pakistan but there are too many bad fruits in the basket.

 

[Dr. Abdul Basit]

Is this voluntary or being forced to leave Pakistan?

your question needs a long answer but I will try to wrap it in short: I would mention the pull and push factors; push factors from Pakistan side and pull factors are within Afghanistan. Push factors mainly is the border management, as I mentioned previously they were crossing over and coming back like we do in our country between provinces. pull factor in Afghanistan is nothing but the increased package of 400USD per capita. Frankly saying, the definition of a REFUGEE is no more applicable and valid for most of the Afghans in our country as the definition states
" if someone have to flee his homeland and CANNOT RETURN to his country of origin due to fear of persecution with regards life, religion, assets, beliefs or due to any natural disaster"
however these Afghans used to travel quite frequently, even most of them would go to Afghanistan to colder places during summer and return to Pakistan during winters...but again there was no check, now border management can effectively keep a check on the movement.

 

[Khan_21]

Keep in mind this is 500 families not people. Considering their family size I am betting 500 families equals to 2000-2500 people per day if you average in 4 kids per family. Usually afghan families have like 4-10 kids.