Over 1,200 Afghans registered in fresh drive

PESHAWAR: More than 1,200 Afghan nationals have been registered at 11 centres set up across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the drive to enroll the undocumented Afghans in Pakistan is presently ongoing.

Authorities are looking to register all the unregistered Afghan nationals under the drive that is simultaneously being carried out in the four provinces and the federal capital, Islamabad.

The purpose is to collect the data concerning the immigrants who neither have the Proof of Registration (POR) cards nor in possession of any travel visa to legalise their stay in Pakistan. Authorities have estimated that 600,000 to one million Afghans living in Pakistan didn’t obtain any document to legalise their stay in the country.

“The drive began on August 16 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Those Afghans who were never registered are being enrolled at specially set up centres all over the province,” Waqar Maroof, director general Afghan Refugees, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told The News.

According to official data, 1,201 Afghans have been registered at nine centres all over the province while the record of the two centres was not available. Among those turning up at various centres for registration were 213 minors.

As per the statistics available with the authorities, 118 Afghans have been registered at the centre set up in Peshawar city, 114 near Kala Mandi on GT Road, 188 in Mardan, 60 in Nowshera city, 355 in Pabbi and 92 in Dir. Besides, 100 male and female Afghans were registered at special centres set up in Mansehra, 94 in Hangu and 90 in Kohat.

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) and the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation are overseeing the project with support from the International Organisation for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Last month, a statement from UNHCR stated that, “The UNHCR welcomes the Pakistan government’s programme to register undocumented Afghans living in the country, currently estimated between 600,000 to one million. This significant step will help regularise the stay for many Afghans at a time when return to their home country may not be possible.”

The Afghans registered under this new scheme will receive Afghan Citizen (AC) cards, providing them legal protection from arbitrary arrests, detention or deportation under Pakistan’s Foreigner’s Act.

“The AC cards will allow Afghans to stay in Pakistan for the time being until they can be issued documents, such as passports, by the government of Afghanistan. The initiative will bring much needed relief for many Afghan families where some were registered refugees, while others had no legal status,” said the UNHCR.

Pakistan had last year arrested and deported a large number of Afghans who didn’t have any kind of document showing them as refugee or as foreign immigrant coming through valid visa to legalise their stay in the country.