Pakistan to soon launch second phase of repatriation of documented Afghans
Amidst ongoing uncertainty regarding the exact count of undocumented Afghans repatriated from Pakistan, plans are underway to initiate the second phase of repatriation targeting nearly one million 'documented' Afghans, reports a leading media outlet on Monday.
As per documents accessed by Dawn newspaper and information from a knowledgeable official, Pakistan's Interior Ministry has instructed district authorities and police to accelerate the process of mapping and collecting data on Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders. March 25 has been designated as the deadline to complete this task.
Pakistan initiated the first phase of repatriation for what it termed "undocumented aliens" in November of the previous year.
"We have already commenced the mapping process," stated Abid Majeed, the additional chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to the newspaper. "It will gain momentum after Ramazan, and we aim to conclude the survey by April 30."
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, there are approximately 2.18 million documented Afghan refugees in Pakistan. This figure encompasses 1.3 million refugees possessing Proof of Registration (PoR) cards from the census conducted in 2006-07, along with an additional 880,000 refugees who were granted ACCs following a registration campaign in 2017.
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