Govt registers Afghans for the first time

[Neo]

Govt registers Afghans for the first time

ISLAMABAD (updated on: October 15, 2006, 14:48 PST): Pakistan began on Sunday to register Afghan refugees for the first time and to provide them with official identification during their temporary stay in the country.

The government exercise, helped by the UN refugee agency, is a follow-up to the 2005 census of Afghans who fled to Pakistan after December 1, 1979 to escape the Soviet invasion of their homeland.

"Only Afghans included in the census can take part in the registration," said Nayar Agha, the Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees in Islamabad. "For them, registration is mandatory and they will get a Proof of Registration (PoR) card at the end of it."

The 10-week programme will be conducted through 90 centres supported by mobile registration vehicles across Pakistan. United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and government officials are verifying names against the census database and monitoring the whole process.

So far, more than 4,000 Afghans have been registered in pilot exercises in northern Chitral and eastern Jhang districts that started on October 1, the UN refugee agency said.

"More than 2.8 million Afghans have returned home from Pakistan since 2002. Another 2.5 million are believed to be still living in Pakistan," Indrika Ratwatte, the UNHCR's assistant Representative in Pakistan, said.

"Within the three years of the PoR card's validity, we hope to be able to find more durable solutions to this protracted situation," she said in a statement.

"Starting next March, we will introduce new repatriation arrangements tied to the PoR card to help returnees in their area of origin," it said.

The registration exercise, which cost six million dollars, is expected to be completed by December 31.

Pakistan has been encouraging the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees under a UN-assisted programme following the 2001 ouster of the Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan.

It has closed refugee camps in its tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to beef up security in the region, but tribesmen frequently cross the border to meet family members or for trade on both sides.

Pakistan has deployed 80,000 troops in its tribal area to check cross border movement of Taliban and al Qaeda linked fighters and has also entered a deal with tribal elders in North Waziristan to expel foreign militants

 

[Neo]

Finally some one woke up in Islamabad.
Imho this should have been done in 1987 already.

 

[Neo]

Pakistan begins census of Afghans

By Barbara Plett
BBC News, Islamabad

For the first time Pakistan's government is beginning a campaign to register all Afghans currently living in the country.
There are some 2.5 million including thousands who fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Afghans continue to try to cross Pakistan's border.

The drive is seen as a way to monitor a large and fluid community but also as another step towards repatriation.

Since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, Pakistani authorities have encouraged them to return to Afghanistan.

Afghans in Pakistan form a very mobile community.

Tens of thousands cross the border daily drawn by ethnic, family and business ties.

The government admits that some are probably Taleban militants but it says it is difficult to crack down on them because they blend in with the community.

Three years' grace

The registration will be carried out over 10 weeks with the help of the UN's refugee agency.

It will give the government detailed information about who is here, making it easier to monitor the population.

It will also give the Afghans an identity card prolonging their stay in the country for three more years.

After that, Pakistan is determined to close the remaining refugee camps with the ultimate aim of repatriating all Afghan refugees.

But this may be difficult.

A survey shows that many Afghans prefer to stay in Pakistan, partly because of the security situation in Afghanistan but also because it is easier to get housing and jobs here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6052334.stm

 

[Janbaz]

It was about time

 

[sparten]

Harder than it seems, many are entitled to citizenship. Can of worms if they ever was one.

 

[Neo]

We can't deport the ones born on our soil, ethically its not right.
Does anyone have a figure on this particular group?

 

[araz]

Finally some one woke up in Islamabad.
Imho this should have been done in 1987 already.

Brother AsSalam oAlaikum.
AND ABOUT BLOODY TIME AS WELL!!! If you want to do something, no good moping about it. I think, Pak Government has realized that this burden needs to be lightened. The Afghans need to go back and it also acts as a shaft up Karzai,s backside that if you dont shut up we will empty the camps and push this mass of people back into Afghanistan. The moron knows he cannot look after them and added pressure of 2.5 million people on a crippled economy would be devastating. He will come to his senses pretty soon.
I also feel that the cross border terrorism issue would also dise a slow death, once our friends have been returned to their country.
WaSalam
Araz

 

[sparten]

We can't deport the ones born on our soil, ethically its not right.
Does anyone have a figure on this particular group?

The ones born here are Pakistani citizens. The problematic ones are the people who go back and forth, but may have been ordinarily resident for 5 years at a strech and thus be able to claim citizenship.

As for numbers
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.pdf?tbl=SUBSITES&page=SUBSITES&id=434fdc702

 

[Neo]

Brother AsSalam oAlaikum.
AND ABOUT BLOODY TIME AS WELL!!! If you want to do something, no good moping about it. I think, Pak Government has realized that this burden needs to be lightened.

Arazbhai, Imho GoP has waited for the right moment to initaite the return of these trouble makers. Aghanistan is liberated!
Earlier expells or forcefull deportation would have portrayed us as badguys.

The Afghans need to go back and it also acts as a shaft up Karzai,s backside that if you dont shut up we will empty the camps and push this mass of people back into Afghanistan.

Camps have to emptied anyway, we have taken care of them long enough. Its time form them to go regardless what Karzai has to say.

The moron knows he cannot look after them and added pressure of 2.5 million people on a crippled economy would be devastating. He will come to his senses pretty soon.

Well let him run go get help from his new master, Mr Manmohan Singh. I'm sure he can spare some nutritious cookies to feed a couple of millions.

I also feel that the cross border terrorism issue would also dise a slow death, once our friends have been returned to their country.
WaSalam
Araz

Cross border terrorism will die slowly as these migrants usually act as courriers. Once we sent them back, seal the border!

 

[Neo]

The ones born here are Pakistani citizens. The problematic ones are the people who go back and forth, but may have been ordinarily resident for 5 years at a strech and thus be able to claim citizenship.

As for numbers
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.pdf?tbl=SUBSITES&page=SUBSITES&id=434fdc702

Thanks Sparten! :thumbsup:

 

[Neo]

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Iran launches new drive to expel Afghan illegals

TEHRAN: Iran has launched a drastic plan that could send hundreds of thousands of illegal Afghan workers back to their home country in a bid to free up jobs for queues of domestic jobless, the official news agency IRNA reported on Monday. “The plan will cover a three-month period, whereby about 800,000 illegal Afghan workers will be screened and dealt with,” the ministry’s general director of foreign nationals employment, Muhammad Hassan Salehi Maram, was quoted as saying. “Currently, the number of Afghan residents in Iran is three million, out of whom about 1.3 million are working in various places,” he said. Temporary six-month work permits could be issued for foreign workers, including the Afghans, he explained, adding that the permits would only apply to three sectors of “brick-burning plants, construction and agriculture.” “After three months, the (tracking) plan will be repeated until no more illegal foreign nationals remain in the country,” Salehi Maram added. The Interior Ministry’s figures have put the number of registered Afghan nationals at more than one million — up 8.5 percent from February. According to Interior Ministry estimates, some 950,000 more are reported to be living in the country illegally. But some unofficial reports said only a few thousand illegal Afghans have work a permit. The drive will see employers rewarded if they lay off unregistered workers and possibly jailed if they fail to do so. “The employers who do not report their illegal Afghan workers will be fined and jailed,” the student news agency ISNA quoted Salehi Maram as saying. “On the other hand, if they are replaced with Iranian unemployment pensioners, the employers will be given loans and exempted from insurance fees for the new workers for four years,” he added. The move is to reinforce the constitution, which bans foreign nationals from being employed in Iran without work permits under the labour law

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\10\31\story_31-10-2006_pg7_29

 

[Neo]

Today's date: Thursday, 30 November 2006
UNHCR Briefing Notes

Pakistan: Afghan registration nears half million mark :thumbsup:

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 28 November 2006, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Close to half a million Afghans have been registered in Pakistan in an ongoing government exercise to provide official documentation to Afghans who arrived in Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979.

Since the exercise started on October 15, Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has registered some 490,000 Afghans. More than half of them were registered in North West Frontier Province, 22 percent in Balochistan, 15 percent in Punjab, 10 percent in Sindh and 1.3 percent in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The registration exercise is expected to continue through the end of the year, targeting an estimated 2.4 million Afghans in Pakistan who were counted in a 2005 census that preceded registration. Registered Afghans receive a Proof of Registration card that is valid for three years and recognizes the bearer as an Afghan citizen temporarily living in Pakistan.

The US$6 million exercise is the largest-ever registration by a host government of a mixed and protracted situation. It has so far received funds from the European Commission, the United States and the United Kingdom.

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=456c15be2

 

[Neo]

Pakistan wants refugee camps relocated to Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 8: Pakistan on Thursday proposed that the Afghan refugee camps should be relocated on the Afghan side and a Marshal Plan-like programme be implemented in south and southeast Afghanistan to control the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

"The international community should seriously consider this proposal which, under the prevailing circumstances, can provide a realistic chance of bringing durable peace and development to Afghanistan," Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akram told a meeting of the UN Security Council convened to discuss the report submitted by the Security Council Mission on Afghanistan.

He lamented that the international community had avoided addressing seriously the issue of Afghan refugees, and pointed out that some "three million of them are still in Pakistan without any appreciable international assistance."

Many complaints regarding illegal border crossing would end if these refugees could be repatriated to Afghanistan, he said.

“Pakistan has proposed that the Afghan refugee camps on the border should be relocated on the Afghan side, and we are planning the return of all refugees within three years to Afghanistan. That should put an end to allegations of cross-border movement. But it is surprising that the issue of refugees does not figure in the report of the Security Council Mission," he noted.

Pakistan also proposed fencing and mining the borders to prevent cross-border movement, but the proposal was not accepted, he said.

“The situation in Afghanistan is dangerous,” he said, adding that the factors causing deterioration of security in Afghanistan included mis-governance, rampant corruption, drugs economy, failure of security reforms, failure of reconstruction and reconciliation, and keeping large sections of the Afghan people, particularly Pashtoons, away from power.

"Pakistan has vital stakes in peace and stability in Afghanistan. Twenty-five years of war in Afghanistan has destabilised our Frontier region, radicalised it and alienated some of the Pashtoons,” he said, adding that if they were to serve the larger objective of bridging Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia, peace and stability in Afghanistan was a must.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/12/09/top12.htm

 

[sparten]

Offer the Pakhtuns citizenship. And be done with it. They'll take it with both hands. And the Tajiks and the rest can go to hell aka Afghanistan.

 

[Neo]

Offer the Pakhtuns citizenship. And be done with it. They'll take it with both hands.

This will create problems in the future and enhance cross border human traffic.

And the Tajiks and the rest can go to hell aka Afghanistan.

Agreed! They can go back or seek refuge in Tajikistan, States or India.
As long as they're gone!