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06-30-2016, 02:40 PM
PM extends their stay in Pakistan till Dec 31; Pakistan to provide wheat to refugees in their relocated camps in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has expressed serious concern over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to extend the Afghan refugees’ stay in Pakistan for six months till December 31 of this year.
The approval has been accorded in the face of fierce opposition from the people who want to send the refugees back to their homeland as they have already stayed for about 40 years and caused e**rmous problems for the people of Pakistan.
Sources told The News that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recently impressed upon the Government of Pakistan **t to push the Afghan refugees back to their country by force, but the government was adamant on sending them back to Afghanistan at the earliest.
The KP government also expressed its reservations about the decision to extend the stay of the Afghan refugees since they are hurting the eco**my and culture of the province. The sources said that in directions issued to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and States and Frontier Regions (Safron), the prime minister said the Afghan refugees could stay in Pakistan by December 31st this year. He directed the Ministry of Safron to take up the matter with the Afghan authorities and UNHCR in this regard. It could be the final extension in the stay of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan since the government has planned to chalk out an elaborate programme for their repatriation during the next six months.
The prime minister said that Pakistan would supply free of cost wheat to the refugee camps to be set up in Afghanistan for three years as a goodwill gesture. He said the wheat would be provided on the basis of number of the members of the family. The official sources reminded that the prime minister had seen and ordered as follows:
i. The stay of POR Cardholders Afghan refugees shall be extended for a further period of six months only, till 31st December, 2016; and
ii. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and States and Frontier Regions Division shall immediately engage with UNHCR and the government of Afghanistan for gradual relocation of refugee camps in Pakistan to Afghanistan. In order to facilitate relocation and as a gesture of continued goodwill, Pakistan shall commit provision of wheat for the relocated camps in Afghanistan for a period of three years, free of cost.
Quantum of wheat shall be determined by a certified number of refugees returning from camps in Pakistan and authorised daily entitlement, according to the standards of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
Reuters adds: Pakistani police arrested at least 500 Afghan refugees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and deported them as a security risk, officials said a day before the expiry of a refugee registration deadline.
Registration cards allowing temporary legal stay to Afghan refugees got a six-month extension from the government after they expired in December.
There are only 100,000 registered refugees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the provincial information minister, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani.
“We don’t suggest any aggressive campaign against Afghan refugees, but we have been hosting them for the past 35 years and it is time they should go back to their country,” Ghani said.
Unregistered Afghans had become a major security issue for the government, he said, urging the federal government to revisit its policy on the refugees.
“If Pakistan wants to host them, it needs to register them and bring them under a proper network,” he added.
More than 2,000 refugees have been arrested in the last month, and 400 were deported to Afghanistan.
The number of Afghans voluntarily returning home has plunged this year as violence worsens in Afghanistan, where the government and its US allies are fighting a stubborn Taliban insurgency.
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ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has expressed serious concern over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to extend the Afghan refugees’ stay in Pakistan for six months till December 31 of this year.
The approval has been accorded in the face of fierce opposition from the people who want to send the refugees back to their homeland as they have already stayed for about 40 years and caused e**rmous problems for the people of Pakistan.
Sources told The News that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recently impressed upon the Government of Pakistan **t to push the Afghan refugees back to their country by force, but the government was adamant on sending them back to Afghanistan at the earliest.
The KP government also expressed its reservations about the decision to extend the stay of the Afghan refugees since they are hurting the eco**my and culture of the province. The sources said that in directions issued to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and States and Frontier Regions (Safron), the prime minister said the Afghan refugees could stay in Pakistan by December 31st this year. He directed the Ministry of Safron to take up the matter with the Afghan authorities and UNHCR in this regard. It could be the final extension in the stay of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan since the government has planned to chalk out an elaborate programme for their repatriation during the next six months.
The prime minister said that Pakistan would supply free of cost wheat to the refugee camps to be set up in Afghanistan for three years as a goodwill gesture. He said the wheat would be provided on the basis of number of the members of the family. The official sources reminded that the prime minister had seen and ordered as follows:
i. The stay of POR Cardholders Afghan refugees shall be extended for a further period of six months only, till 31st December, 2016; and
ii. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and States and Frontier Regions Division shall immediately engage with UNHCR and the government of Afghanistan for gradual relocation of refugee camps in Pakistan to Afghanistan. In order to facilitate relocation and as a gesture of continued goodwill, Pakistan shall commit provision of wheat for the relocated camps in Afghanistan for a period of three years, free of cost.
Quantum of wheat shall be determined by a certified number of refugees returning from camps in Pakistan and authorised daily entitlement, according to the standards of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
Reuters adds: Pakistani police arrested at least 500 Afghan refugees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and deported them as a security risk, officials said a day before the expiry of a refugee registration deadline.
Registration cards allowing temporary legal stay to Afghan refugees got a six-month extension from the government after they expired in December.
There are only 100,000 registered refugees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the provincial information minister, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani.
“We don’t suggest any aggressive campaign against Afghan refugees, but we have been hosting them for the past 35 years and it is time they should go back to their country,” Ghani said.
Unregistered Afghans had become a major security issue for the government, he said, urging the federal government to revisit its policy on the refugees.
“If Pakistan wants to host them, it needs to register them and bring them under a proper network,” he added.
More than 2,000 refugees have been arrested in the last month, and 400 were deported to Afghanistan.
The number of Afghans voluntarily returning home has plunged this year as violence worsens in Afghanistan, where the government and its US allies are fighting a stubborn Taliban insurgency.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/a9l9rCsYE0w
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/cwEr/~3/a9l9rCsYE0w/131802-KP-govt-concerned-over-extension-in-Afghan-refugees-stay)