UNHCR official says 6,070 Afghans repatriated so far

PESHAWAR: An official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday that at least 6,070 Afghan nationals had been repatriated to their homeland since the attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar onDecember 16 last year.
The spokesperson Shandana said operations were being carried out on a daily basis in various parts of the country to apprehend the unregistered Afghan nationals. She said that at least 1,270 registered Afghan families comprising of 5,792 individuals had returned to Afghanistan during the last few months.
The official said the UNHCR was taking up issues only pertaining to documented Afghan refugees with the Pakistan government.
She added that coordination was going on at all levels with federal and provincial governments with regard to refugees’ issues such as harassment of the Afghan refugees. “We have received some complaints about bribes being taken from the refugees at different checkposts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Khyber Agency” she added.
Meanwhile, the Afghan refugees accused officials of the political administration of Khyber Agency and police personnel in Peshawar of fleecing them during their return to their homeland.
They alleged that the members of the Khassadar force had been taking money from them and also harassing them at the checkpoints on the Torkham border with Afghanistan. Zarmat Khan, belonging to Nangarhar province, said the Khassadars took Rs1,800 from his family to allow them to cross the Torkham border. Another refugee, Gul Zar Khan, hailing from Jalalabad, said the officials of the Pakistan government harassed and fleeced them at several posts from Karkhano Market to the Torkham border.
When contacted, Assistant Political Tehsildar Torkham border, Nek Muhammad said the Afghan refugees were levelling baseless allegations against the officials of the political administration.
He said that 4,800 undocumented Afghan refugees’ families comprising of 29,500 individuals had been repatriated to their motherland via Torkham border. None of the Afghan refugees had lodged complaints with the administration pertaining to injustice to them, the official said. “We have been facilitating the Afghan refugees to return to their homeland and providing every possible facility to them” he stated.
The officials of UNHCR at Torkham said they had been providing legal assistance to Afghan refugees to ease their troubles. He said the Torkham border gate remained open 24 hours owing to their efforts.