Pakistan extends stay of Afghan refugees until 2015

Pakistan on Thursday decided to extend the stay of Afghan refugees until 2015, officials said.

The legal stay of nearly 1.6 million Afghan refugees expired on June 30 this year and the country's federal cabinet decided to extend the period for another two-and-half year.

Pakistani minister for States and Frontier Regions, which also deals with the refugee affairs, in a tripartite meeting in Kabul this month, had in principle agreed to extend the period. However the decision was subject to the approval of the cabinet.

"The Cabinet considers the issue of repatriation of Afghan refugees beyond 30th June and decides that the Proof of the Registration Card (PoR) for them may be extended up till 2015," a government statement said.

Pakistani and the UN refugee agency say that besides 1.6 million registered there are more one million un-registered Afghans living in Pakistan.

Afghan refugees in Pakistan are still the biggest number of refugees in any part of the world.

The United Nations High Council for Refugees (UNHCR) and Afghan government welcomed the decision.

The UNHCR continues volunteer repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and repatriates thousands every year.

According to the statistics available with the Afghan Ministry of Refugee Repatriation, over the last 10 years, nearly 3.8 million Afghan refugees voluntarily returned to their country from Pakistan, but still 1.6 million remain in Pakistan.

UNHCR has identified civil wars as one of the important factors that have increased the number of asylum seekers worldwide, leaving Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan with nearly 50 percent of the world's total refugee population.