Mansehra admin yet to complete Afghans registration

MANSEHRA: The district administration has yet to complete the registration of Afghan nationals before initiating their repatriation to the native country.

“Around 70 individuals, including men, women, and children, have returned to Afghanistan thus far,” Mohammad Ali, the district administrator for Afghan Refugees, told reporters here on Monday.

He said that the repatriation of Afghans via the Torkham border was slow due to the massive influx of families returning to their homeland.“We have around 24,600 Afghan nationals in our district, and approximately 9,000 of them who were granted temporary stay through NADRA-issued Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) in 2017 are being prioritised for repatriation,” he explained.

He added that 3,979 men, women, and children currently reside in the Barari/Sheikhabad camp, 9,128 in the Khaki camp, and 2,441 in the Ichrian camp.

The official said around 9,000 Afghan nationals obtained ACCs in 2017 and reside in rented houses across Mansehra, Balakot, Oghi, Baffa-Pakhal, and Darband tehsils. “The district administration has registered 3,500 out of these 9,000 individuals so far, and the process is still ongoing,” he said.He added that these individuals would be repatriated to Afghanistan once the registration process was completed.