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BY APD Writer Muhammad Sohail
**ISLAMABAD, July 24 (APD) -- **Pakistan has started registration of Afghan refugees who has been living in Pakistan illegally without having any documents to prove their identity, officials said on Monday.
An official from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) of Pakistan said that Pakistan is registering undocumented Afghan refugees who till now have been without identity papers. The move will allow up to one million Afghan people to have a legal status which would help them travel back to their homeland in future.
Afghan nationals registered under the new scheme will be given Afghan Citizen Cards, which will allow them to legally stay in Pakistan until the Government of Afghanistan issue them passports and other documents, providing them legal protection from arbitrary arrests, detention or deportation under Pakistan’s Foreigner’s Act.
Duniya Aslam, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan, said, “This significant step will help regularize the stay for many Afghans at a time when return to their home country may not be possible.”
The registration program will continue for six months in the country’s capital Islamabad and the northwest regions which host the largest number of undocumented Afghans.
Initially, the process has been started in Islamabad and is expected to be rolled out throughout the country on August 16.
“The initiative will bring much-needed relief for many Afghan families where some were registered refugees, while others had no legal status,” said Duniya.
The registration of undocumented Afghans follows three years of consultations between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan and UNHCR.
It forms part of Pakistan’s Comprehensive Policy on the Repatriation and Management of Afghans, which was endorsed by its cabinet earlier this year.
According to the officials, some 25 Afghan government personnel are expected to visit Pakistan to observe the registration process.
Around 1.45 million registered and up to one million unregistered refugees are living in camps, urban centers, in rural and city area across Pakistan for over 35 years.
A large number of Afghans rushed to neighboring Pakistan after the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979 and later when U.S.-led NATO forces attacked Afghanistan in 2001. The UNHCR claims to have helped 4.1 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan return home since 2002, the largest repatriation in the world.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
