Tripartite session held to discuss repatriation of Afghan refugees

KABUL: A tripartite session was held on Saturday in Kabul between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN refugee agency to start the documentation process of unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Afghan minister of refugees and repatriation Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi said Afghanistan and Pakistan governments have agreed to register Afghan refugees without official registration ID cards. Adding, a group of hundred Afghans will be send to Pakistan to cooperate in the process.

Pakistan open 21 centers to register Afghan refugees and the process will be observed by a group of hundred Afghans.

Balkhi also said we have agreed to extend the stay for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, but we are still working on a legal frame work.

“We have agreed, but still we need time to work on a legal framework, we will sign a new tripartite MoU before the end of 2015 to extend the stay for Afghan refugees for another two years till the end of 2017,” Balkhi highlighted.

Pakistan’s minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Abdul Qadir Baloch who was in the meeting to represent Pakistan said the recent reactions against Pakistan will not affect Afghan refugees negatively.

“The purpose of these meetings are to solve this protracted human problem which is there in these two countries, the Afghani people leaving Pakistan and also some of them are living in Iran and these interactions are basically to find solutions and we trying to find ways and means to ensure that they return to their own country in dignity and honor voluntarily as soon as possible,” Baloch said.

Nearly three million Afghan refugees are still living in Pakistan and according to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Pakistan is hosting almost 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees and also hosts around one million un-registered Afghans.

Reported by: Abdul Aziz Karimi