Pakistan says it should lengthen the validity of proof of registration playing cards of 1.45 million Afghan refugees by one 12 months.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has introduced it should lengthen registration playing cards to almost 1.5 million Afghan refugees after a senior UN official urged the nation to halt its deportation plan.
“The federal cupboard has authorised the extension of the validity of the POR (Proof of Registration) playing cards of 1.45 million Afghan refugees for one 12 months. Their PoR playing cards expired on June 30, 2024. The extension has been granted until June 30, 2025,” the prime minister’s workplace stated in an announcement after the conclusion of a cupboard assembly on Wednesday.
The announcement got here after a debate on the standing of refugees between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Filippo Grandi, head of the United Nations refugee company (UNHCR), who visited Pakistan earlier this week.
Sharif informed Grandi that the worldwide neighborhood should acknowledge the “burden Pakistan bears” in internet hosting a big refugee inhabitants and display “collective duty,” in accordance with an announcement issued by the prime minister’s workplace on Tuesday.
Pakistan has hosted tens of millions of Afghan refugees for the reason that Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The most recent inflow started in August 2021, when the Taliban regained energy in Afghanistan, prompting an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 Afghans to hunt refuge in neighboring Pakistan.
Final November, Pakistan launched a broadly criticized repatriation program geared toward repatriating tens of millions of Afghans no matter their authorized standing.
In accordance with the federal government, Pakistan presently hosts practically three million Afghans, of whom about 2.4 million have some type of authorized documentation. Of those, practically 1.5 million have a UNHCR-issued residency card and one other 800,000 have an Afghan citizenship card.
An official on the Afghan Commissionerate, the federal government company answerable for Afghan refugees within the nation, stated greater than 600,000 refugees have returned to Afghanistan up to now, of whom greater than 30,000 have been deported and the remainder have returned voluntarily.
UNHCR chief Grandi acknowledged the challenges dealing with Pakistan and expressed his appreciation that the repatriation programme has now been “suspended”, expressing his hope that it’s going to stay so, in accordance with a UNHCR assertion.
As we depart Pakistan, an announcement from UNHCR summarising the important thing findings of my constructive discussions with the federal government, our companions and Afghan refugees.
👇🏻https://t.co/uWATlwKYp9— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) July 10, 2024
“We have to seize this chance to speed up options and have a broader imaginative and prescient for the Afghan folks in Pakistan,” Grandi stated.
The Afghan Fee official, who requested anonymity, additionally confirmed that the scheme has been quickly suspended and that no expulsions or deportations have taken place from border crossings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Baluchistan provinces.
“Today, there may be full calm on the border and Afghan households will not be dealing with harassment or arrests,” the official informed Al Jazeera on Wednesday.