Govt registers Afghans for the first time

[Neo]

February 16, 2007
All Afghans to be repatriated by ’09

By Syed Irfan Raza

ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: The government has decided to repatriate all Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan by 2009.

This was announced at a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Cabinet Committee held here on Thursday.

The committee – headed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao –devised a strategy to send all Afghan refugees back to their homeland in three years, from 2007 to 2009.

A participant of the meeting told Dawn that the strategy would be presented before Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the near future after which the process of repatriation would start. Under the strategy, four camps of Afghan refugees located in Balochistan and the NWFP will be removed in the ongoing year. In the first phase, two of them -- one in each province -- will be wrapped up in March. The meeting was attended by Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Mohammed Rind, Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah, Secretary Safron Sajid Hussain Chattha, Additional Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khalid Khattak, Chief Commissioner Afghan Refugees Nayer Agha and Joint Secretary Interior Ministry Mohammed Anwar Khan.

APP adds: Mr Sherpao said peace and stability in Afghanistan was in vital interest of Pakistan and the region.

Afghans are our brothers and we have hosted refugees for 25 years. We want the refugees to return voluntarily in a dignified manner and take part in the reconstruction of their country, he said.

According to official figures, about 2.4 million Afghans are living in Pakistan – one million in camps and 1.4 million in urban areas. Since 2002, about 2.8 million Afghan refugees have been repatriated to their homeland.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/16/top8.htm

 

[Neo]

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Nearly 250,000 Afghan refugees not registered during campaign

PESHAWAR: Around 250,000 Afghan refugees did not have themselves registered during the registration process that began on October 15, 2006 and ended on February 15, 2007.

The Pakistan government has given these refugees six weeks time - from March 1 to April 15 - to leave Pakistan through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), otherwise action will be taken against them under the country’s laws.

“Out of 2.4 million refugees, 2.15 million have been registered and issued Proof of Registration Cards (PoRs) while 250,000 did not apply for registration and would not be given further extensions,” Babar Baloch, an Islamabad-based UNHCR National Media Officer, told Daily Times.

The Pakistan government launched the registration process, as decided by the Pakistan and Afghan governments and the UN refugee agency, on October 15, 2006 and the closing date was extended thrice. The UN refugee agency funded and monitored the registration of refugees residing in Pakistan while the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) was the executing and implementing authority.

“PoR is an identification document and gives an Afghan refugee the right to temporarily stay in Pakistan for three years,” said the UN refugee agency official, adding that refugees wanting to go to their homeland within three years could return with the UNHCR’s assistance. “The UNHCR repatriation process will begin on April 16 and the agency will pay $60 per returnee,” he said. All registered Afghans above the age of five received Proof of Registration (PoR) cards valid till December 2009, recognising them as Afghan citizens temporarily living in Pakistan. Children under five are listed on one of their parents’ cards.

Numerous Afghan refugees first came to Pakistan in December 1979 in the aftermath of the former Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. According to an estimate, over 3.5 million refugees crossed over the Pak-Afghan border into Pakistan. However, their number fluctuated due to the internal situation in Afghanistan. Since there had been no exact figures and other details, particularly on identification of refugees, the Pakistan and Afghan governments and the UN refugee agency signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2004 to carry out a census.

“The first census of refugees conducted in February-March 2005 revealed the presence of 3.047 refugees in Pakistan,” said Baloch. Under the voluntary repatriation programme launched by the UN refugee agency, over 600,000 had been repatriated.

“Only those refugees were included in the registration process who were incorporated in the census,” said the media officer.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\17\story_17-2-2007_pg7_9

 

[Neo]

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

2 Afghan refugee camps to be closed by June 15

ISLAMABAD: The government has announced that two Afghan refugee camps – the Katchagari camp in NWFP and the Jungle Pir Alizai camp in Balochistan – will be closed by June 15 in accordance with plans to shut them down.

According to a press release by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday, Afghan refugees will begin vacating the camps on April 15. It said the refugees could choose to repatriate to Afghanistan with the UNHCR’s help, and Afghans without proof of registration cards must get these cards between March 1 and April 15 to avail the UNHCR assistance.

Afghans who do not want to repatriate at the moment would be relocated to other camps identified by the government. The UNHCR will also help such refugees, who would have to give their names to the district administrator or a designated official of the Commission for Afghan Refugees (CAR) in the camps the are relocated to.

The press release said that the Girdi Jungle camp in Balochistan and the Jalozai camp in NWFP would also be closed by August 31.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\21\story_21-2-2007_pg7_10

 

[Neo]

March 03, 2007

UNHCR plans return of 250,000 Afghans in ’07

GENEVA, March 2: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday estimated that some 250,000 Afghan refugees could return home this year from Pakistan and Iran.

“The planning figure for returns from Pakistan and Iran in 2007 is 250,000 Afghan returnees,” said the agency’s office in a statement.

It was unable to give a breakdown between the two countries.

The agency has helped a total of 3.7 million Afghan refugees return home from neighbouring countries since 2002, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid Van Genderen Stort told AFP. They included some 2.87 million from Pakistan and 837,800 from Iran.

Some 2.1 million Afghans are still in Pakistan and 915,000 in Iran, according to the agency.

However, the numbers of voluntary repatriations has been dwindling over the years and many Afghans are not expected to return to their homeland.

“This displacement has been going on for two decades or more and many of the Afghans in neighbouring countries are integrated in local society, they have businesses or jobs and families,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/03/03/top16.htm

 

[Neo]

March 08, 2007
UN to help 250,000 DPs return to Afghanistan

By Bakhtawar Mian

ISLAMABAD, March 7: The United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees will facilitate voluntary return of about 250,000 Afghan refugees to their country in 2007.

A spokesman for the refugee agency told Dawn that currently there are 2.4 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan while 2.18 million of them had been issued proof of registration cards and they are allowed to stay in Pakistan for three years. It is, however, in their interest to return willingly within this period for which the UNHCR will provide an assistance package on their landing in Afghanistan. According to a decision of the Pakistan government, after April 15, Afghans without registration cards will be considered illegal immigrants and dealt according to local laws. :GUNS:

Pakistan has been stressing on the Afghan refugees to return and warned that it might use force if voluntary return was obstructed.

Refugees possessing registration cards have been asked to approach the UNHCR for their safe return to their country from April 16 and Nov 15, 2007.

Referring to their settlement in Afghanistan, the spokesman said the Afghan government has planned to set up about 50 to 100 small towns for the returnees.

He said that here were 200,000 Afghan refugees who had not applied for registration cards, adding that they were given a six-week period, between March 15 and April 15 to approach the UNHCR. Within this period, they will still be entitled to the agency’s assistance.

According to the spokesman, the repatriation process would be in two phases: one for those possessing registration cards and the other for people without the cards.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/03/08/top13.htm

 

[JK!]

Excellent, send them and the radicals back to where they came from and let Karzai deal with his people as opposed to us.

Having, said that some of the people I saw in a UK dispatches program were genuine refugees who had fled the fighting so there needs to be appropriate aid given to them as well.

 

[Neo]

Afghan returnees from Pakistan cross 3 million mark
10 Apr 2007
Source: UNHCR

More ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 10 (UNHCR) – More than 3 million Afghans have voluntarily repatriated from Pakistan with UNHCR assistance since 2002, making it the largest such operation in the refugee agency's history. However, more than 2 million Afghans are still in exile in Pakistan, a protracted situation that can only be resolved with continued international support.

Since UNHCR started assisting returns to post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2002, a total of 3,009,484 Afghans have been processed to return home from Pakistan. The number includes more than 1.56 million in 2002; 343,074 in 2003; 383,598 in 2004; 449,520 in 2005; 133,015 last year and over 135,000 so far in 2007.

Some 61 percent of the returnees left from North West Frontier Province, 16 percent from Balochistan, 14 percent from Punjab/Islamabad and 9 percent from Sindh province in the south. More than 860,000 Afghans have also been assisted home from Iran.

"In the last six years, this operation has seen many ups and downs, from the mass returns of 2002 to the slow pace of repatriation in 2006," said Kilian Kleinschmidt, UNHCR's assistant representative in Pakistan. "These fluctuating trends reflect the voluntary nature of repatriation, and we have tried our best to help Afghans make informed decisions on if and when they should go home."

The majority of returnees from Pakistan have headed to eastern and south-eastern Afghanistan, as well as Kabul and Kunduz provinces. UNHCR works with the Afghan government and partner agencies to provide shelter assistance, income-generation and vocational training to help the most vulnerable returnees reintegrate in their home areas, while advocating for returnees to be included in national development plans.

As Afghanistan struggles to recover from the ruins of decades of conflict, hundreds of thousands of Afghans remain in exile in the region, unable or unwilling to return for the moment.

In Pakistan, more than 2.15 million Afghans were recently registered in a government exercise that provided them with Proof of Registration (PoR) cards recognising them as Afghans temporarily living in Pakistan. The card gives registered Afghans temporary protection up to December 2009.

Afghans who did not register themselves and do not have PoR cards have been given up to April 15 to repatriate in safety and dignity with UNHCR assistance averaging $100 per person. After this date, the government will consider them as illegal immigrants to be dealt with under national laws.

As the deadline approaches, hundreds of overloaded trucks are approaching UNHCR's voluntary repatriation centres (VRCs) every day, a scene reminiscent of the 2002 mass returns.

"The challenge at the moment is to sift through hundreds of families every day to separate genuine returnees from those who are just here for the cash grant," said Kleinschmidt. "We appeal to the Afghan community not to allow bogus returnees to block the repatriation process for those who genuinely want to be assisted home by April 15."

He added that unprecedented anti-fraud measures taken at the VRCs include thorough interviews, fingerprint biometrics, iris verification and the use of election ink to prevent recycling. People found abusing the system will be arrested.

Assisted voluntary repatriation for registered Afghans with PoR cards will start after April 15 and continue till the end of the year.

"Voluntary repatriation is the preferred solution to the protracted Afghan situation in Pakistan," said Kleinschmidt. "At the same time, there will be groups of Afghans who won't be able to go back and will need other solutions."

He added that UNHCR is currently analysing information collected through the registration exercise in order to identify individual Afghans who continue to need international protection and assistance.

By Vivian Tan
in Islamabad, Pakistan
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/c47fe1076378539e8e4ceb098f2094fa.htm

 

[Mansoor A Qureshi]

This is all bakvaas, all these traitors taking grants and aids registering themselves for volunteering going back to thier home land but they come back after a round trip more then maybe 5 million are still on our soil, all these figure from GoP and UNHCR is bull ****, no a single afghan is ready to go back

We must send them back it is already toooo late

 

[Neo]

Education and health facilities at Afghan DPs camps to be curtailed

ISLAMABAD (June 03 2007): In an effort to make things difficult, the government has decided to curtail education and health facilities in the Afghan refugee camps and increase repatriation cash grant from $60 to $100 per head, official sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday.

The decision was taken by a Cabinet committee, and later approved by the Cabinet in its previous meeting after Foreign Ministry cited examples of Lebanon and Jordan who faced severe problems due to Palestinian refugee camps.

"The government is going to curtail education and health facilities at the refugee camps, but it is being kept secret, to avoid criticism," sources said. The Cabinet also accorded approval to close down all illegal Afghan markets, run by refugees, and register restaurants, shops and vendors.

It would be mandatory for all refugees to get registered with the local police stations and landlords to report their Afghan tenants to the respective Afghan refugee camps and local police stations in the urban or rural areas. Sources said that landlords would be discouraged to rent out properties to Afghans.

A strategy paper on Afghan refugees repatriation, prepared by the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, suggests that the government is in the process of obtaining details of Afghan students enrolled in Pakistan Madrassahs, sources said.

"All Madrassahs have also been advised to discourage and not enroll Afghan students," sources added. To regulate the movement of people between Pakistan and Afghanistan, FIA would develop a mechanism of 'Rahdari' in co-ordination with FC and district authorities as in vogue along Pak-Iran borders, sources said.

It would check unauthorised cross border movement of the nationals of both countries, particularly Afghan refugees. Sources said that Interior Ministry and provincial government would launch post-registration random checks, besides preparing a policy to curb the tendency of obtaining illegal NICs.

They said that the exist/entry points would be established in camp premises to check movement of refugees, especially those who are security risk, without any warrant. It was pointed in the Cabinet meeting that success of Afghan refugees repatriation strategy depended on the willingness of the Afghan government and peace and security in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern and eastern provinces.

The Cabinet was of the view that the present UNHRC-assisted repatriation program under the tripartite agreement, which expired by December 31, 2006, needed to be extended to keep the Commission and international community engaged.

Sources said that one of the Cabinet members was of the view that repatriation of Afghan refugees primarily depended upon the performance of the Afghan government in establishing peace and undertaking development activities in its provinces bordering Pakistan.

It was pointed out that refugees needed to be sent back gradually and in a dignified manner so that the goodwill Pakistan had earned during the last three decades would not be lost. Sources said that NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani was in agreement with repatriation plan and strategy, particularly closure of Jalozai and Kacha camps.

However, he desired that to avert any untoward incident at least 10 platoons of Frontier Constabulary or other Civil Armed Forces be directed to assist the local police as backup force on the direction of the provincial government on a one-hour notice. According to sources, the federal government has agreed with the proposal and decided to assist in maintaining peace and to avert any untoward law and other situation.

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=571990&currPageNo=3&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

 

[Neo]

Pakistan to close largest Afghan refugee camp ​

Islamabad, March 1 (Xinhua) Pakistan plans to shut down its biggest camp of Afghan refugees by April 15 and the affected Afghans may have to look for alternate camps or return to Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency said Saturday.

The decision to close the Jalozai camp in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province was based on security concerns and endorsed by a tripartite commission comprising the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2006 and 2007.

Jalozai had been hosting nearly 110,000 registered Afghans who fled from their conflict-ridden country. Since the authorities began closing the sprawling settlement last August, some 25,000 inhabitants have returned to Afghanistan.

Fearing mass displacement and a humanitarian crisis on the eve of winter, UNHCR and the Afghan authorities had requested for a temporary suspension of the closure. Jalozai's Afghan elders also signed an undertaking to vacate the refugee village between March 1 and April 15 this year.

They were given two options: voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan or relocation to another existing refugee settlement in Pakistan.

Afghans returning home with UNHCR help are entitled to an average cash grant of $100 each to cover their travel and initial reintegration expenses.

Some 80,000 registered Afghans still live in Jalozai.

Currently there are some two million registered Afghans living in different places in Pakistan. They are allowed to stay in the country till the end of 2009.

Pakistan to close largest Afghan refugee camp - Yahoo! India News

 

[mujahideen]

I personally think they should be deported. Every single one of them, and if they refuse to leave we should close down their refugee camps, dont offer them any facilities and dont offer them any chance to get jobs. For 60 years they have only tried to somehow disintegrate Pakistan. We helped to defend their country, we gave them a place to stay food to eat and they curse at us. We mustn't forget when Pakistan was created this was the last country to recognize us and when they did they were a launching pad for anti-Pakistan activity.