ISLAMABAD – Eighty-four per cent of the total registered Afghan refugees have no intention to leave Pakistan, while 20 per cent of them have invested over Rs18 billion in different businesses here, says an unreleased UNHCR document.
Moreover, an agreement between the UNHCR and Pakistan for repatriating Afghan refugees after December 31, awaits the prime minister’s nod, it has been learnt.
Exclusively available with this journalist, a report of the Population Profiling, Verification and Response Survey (PPVRS) on Afghan refugees registered in Pakistan, conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in coordination with the Pakistan government reveals that 16 per cent of Afghan refugees, interviewed by the UNHCR in course of the PPVRS, have expressed an intention to return to Afghanistan, while 84 per cent of them expressed no intention of returning, nor did they have any timeframe in mind as to when they intend to go back.
Sources in the UNHCR told The Nation that the UN agency and SAFRON (Ministry of States and Frontier Regions) had jointly prepared a summary that had been moved to Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf for signing a yearly agreement between the UNHCR and Pakistan for the next year. The summary reportedly awaits the premier’s nod at his secretariat.
This year’s repatriation agreement expires on December 31, after which, the UNHCR would no longer be mandated to make steps for voluntary repatriation of the registered Afghan refugees, if a similar agreement for the next year is not signed.
Presently, less than 16 million registered Afghan refugees are residing in Pakistan. They are voluntarily repatriated to Afghanistan under a trilateral repatriation agreement jointly signed by the UNHCR, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The agreement is annually renewed at bilateral level between the UNHCR and Pakistan, and the UNHCR and Afghanistan.
The 110-page report of the PPVRS reveals that Karachi East district has highest number of (75.43 per cent) unregistered Afghan refugees followed by Lakki Marwat’s 45.31 per cent. Although, the number of unregistered Afghan refugees is believed to have exceeded 3.5 million mark in Pakistan, the UNHCR had surveyed only those unregistered Afghan immigrants who were living in mixed communities with registered Afghan refugees.
The PPVRS findings show that out of 2,601 Afghans living in mixed communities in Karachi East, 1962 are illegal Afghans compared to 639 registered ones while 4,589 are unregistered in Lakki Marwat and 5,540 registered refugees out of the mixed community of 10,129 Afghans. Mansehra has highest percentage of registered Afghans ie 41,049 (76.70 per cent) compared to 12,438 unregistered refugees. In Islamabad, 13,903 Afghan refugees (71.44 per cent) are registered and 5,559 unregistered (28.56 per cent) of the total 19,462 Afghan refugees.
In terms of number, Peshawar has highest number of 279,301 Afghan refugees, including 171,266 registered (61.32) and 108,035 unregistered ones, which make an alarming rate of 38.68 percent of total Afghan refugees in the city.
Quetta has Afghan immigrants numbering 105,289 (72.97 per cent) and 20,101 unregistered (41.82 per cent). The population survey gives the data of mixed Afghan communities living in 20 districts of Pakistan.
Peshawar has 28.9 per cent Pashtun Afghan refugees, 34.4 per cent Tajik, 59.4 per cent Persian, 85.3 per cent Kirghiz, 55.1 per cent Nuristani, 48 per cent Pashtai, and 40.1 per cent Afghans from other communities.
In Quetta, 47.6 per cent of Afghan refugees are Tajik, 76.2 per cent Uzbek, 84.3 per cent Hazarans, Turkman 18.2 per cent, Baloch 52.8 per cent, Arab 18.7 percent, Chahar Ajmak 80 per cent, and other Afghan ethnicities 17.9 per cent.
The UNHCR report says that Afghans with chronic diseases or life threatening conditions form 3.5 per cent of total population. Hepatitis (31 per cent), asthma (28 per cent), diabetes (20 per cent) and heart diseases (19 per cent). As many as 356 Afghans are currently missing or kidnapped in Pakistan; 178 are detained while 7776 Afghans are reported to have suffered mental or physical harm in Afghanistan.
Launched in September 2011, the PPVRS is UNHCR’s initiative in coordination with National Database Registration Authority (NADRA). The then UNHCR chief in Pakistan, Mengesha Kebede, had told The Nation that PPVRS finings would be shared publicly.
However, earlier this year, the incumbent UNHCR country chief, Neil Wright, had said that the PPVRS was ‘confidential’ and its findings would not be made public.
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