400,000 undocumented Afghan refugees registered
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Islamabad: Around 400,000 undocumented Afghan refugees have been registered bythe National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) through the newAfghan refugees registration policy which was launched on August 16,2017.
The International Organisation of Migration, which assists andmonitors the movement of migrants across the world, reported that248,189 undocumented Afghan nationals had returned or were deportedfrom Pakistan in 2016.
An official source of Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON)here on Sunday, he said that International Organization for Migration(IOM) looking this process of registration.
He said that the process of registering of one million Afghan refugeesto be completed by January 16, 2018 and in this regard 21 registrationcenters had been established in the different parts of the country.
He said that including the registered Afghan refugees process, twohundred and thirty thousand refugees had been registered in KhyberPakhtunkhwa,
The country has some 1.5 million registered refugees, one of thelargest such populations in the world, according to the UN's refugeeagency (UNHCR). More than a million others are estimated to live hereunregistered.
The government is issuing Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) to them aftertheir registration that will legalize their stay in Pakistan forindefinite period without getting refugee status.
The process is partof 20-point National Action Plan that was unveiled in early 2015. Over200,000 unregistered Afghan nationals went back to Afghanistan in 2016when law enforcement agencies launched crackdown against them.
“Approximately 40 to 45 per cent of the applicants are Afghan passportholders,” he said. He said that most of the Afghan citizens wanted toobtain ACC because of instability and fighting in their war-torncountry.
He said that Afghan nationals did not show their passportwhen they visited registration centres.
