Pakistan to close four Afghan refugee camps

Islamabad, Feb 8 (UNI) The Pakistan government has accounced that four Afghan refugee camps in areas along the border will be closed this year as part of an overall plan to manage and regulate the Afghan population in the country.

The plan also includes new modalities for return of the refugees, starting in spring this year.

Official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted Minister of State and Frontier Regions (Safron) Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind as saying in here that a decision to this effect was reached at the 12th Tripartite Commission meeting of Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR yesterday.

Mr Rind said the four camps, two each in southwestern Balochistan and Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP), would be closed this summer.

Pakistan has been asking international community to help it repatriate over three million Afghan refugees still living on its soil and relocation of some of their camps close to its borders with Afghanistan, which serve as safe havens for the radical Taliban.

The minister said the refugees would be required to return with the assistance of the UNHCR and those who could not return in the immediate future would be relocated to other camps.

About the ongoing refugee registration process, he said over 2.1 million had already been registered, adding that the exercise was near completion.

''The registered Afghans are given Proof of Registration (PoR) cards with a validity of three years that will be linked to new return modalities starting this spring,'' Mr Rind said.

Under the new arrangement, the PoR card holders seeking repatriation must deregister their card before leaving Pakistan in order to receive an enhanced reintegration package on reaching Afghanistan, the minister said.

About the Afghan refugees having no PoR, he said they would be subject to laws of the land, adding that such people would be given a grace period of only six weeks if they wished to avail of the UNHCR assistance.

UNI