PESHAWAR: The federal government has failed to evolve a mechanism for the implementation of the multi-year Solution Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR), which was approved in 2012 to ensure ‘voluntary and dignified’ repatriation of refugees from Pakistan.
In background interviews, officials told Dawn that despite reservations of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the federal government had given two years extension to the stay of the registered refugees in the country but ignored the strategy.
“Components related to the extension of the refugees’ stay and renewal of proof of registration cards have been addressed, while modalities about repatriation highlighted in the strategy have been ignored,” said an official, adding no follow-up meeting had been held at federal or provincial level.
The officials said despite the provincial government’s serious reservations, the federal government gave two years extension to 1.6 million refugees of which one minion had been residing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The provincial government has formally opposed the grant of extension to refugees and asked the centre to work out plan for the early repatriation of Afghans,” said a source in the home and tribal affairs department.
Facilitated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR), Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran had agreed in Geneva to support the strategy to resolve the protracted issue of the refugees living in Pakistan and Iran since 1980s.
Under the strategy, officials said, there will be two oversight committees at the federal and provincial levels to effectively monitor voluntary repatriation of the refugees and ensure implementation of the SSAR.
One committee will function in the Ministry of State and Frontier Regions (Safron), while another will be set up at the provincial home and tribal affairs department in Peshawar.
The Safron secretary will head the 12-member federal committee, which also comprise interior and foreign secretaries, Afghan refugees chief commissioner, Intelligence Bureau director general, Federal Investigation Agency director general and representatives of National Database Registration Authority, home and excise and taxation secretaries, representative of the Federal Board of Revenue, board of revenue member and officials of the Fata Secretariat.
The provincial committee will comprise 10 members and home secretary had been designated its chairman. Both committees have never met.
The sources said both committees had never held a single meeting since the approval of the strategy.
They said the only ministerial level committee had held meeting in Sept 2013 to discuss the SSAR, where the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was represented by the chief secretary.
The sources said the Term of References (ToRs) had not been approved so far to figure out guidelines for the implementation of the strategy.
They said the meeting of the provincial committee was expected in Peshawar next week to finalise ToRs.
The strategy said quarterly figures for repatriation of refugees might be set and Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR would hold regular meetings to ensure smooth and sustainable return of the refugees and also remove bottlenecks when they arose.
The document declared it mandatory that all Afghans in the urban areas be registered with the relevant police stations, while all landlords report about their Afghan tenants to the respective commissioners of Afghan refugees and local police stations in the urban area.
The government will register and tax all businesses run by Afghans including restaurants, shops and vendors. The exit and entry points should be set up on the premises of the camps to check the refugees’ movement.
Records of the enrolled Afghan students in madrassahs will be provided to the interior and Safron ministries and respective police stations.
Officials said the relevant departments had no data or statistics about businesses of the refugees being run in Peshawar and other areas of the province.
The regional Quadripartite Steering Committee called closure of all illegal Afghan markets and also empowered police to conduct random checking for proof of registration cards in urban centres.