Repatriation of Afghan refugees under the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) resumed on Monday when as many as 80 families left a Swabi camp for Afghanistan.
Yarris Afridi, UNHCR spokesman, told Pakistan Today that 331 individuals from 80 families left for their country on 40 trucks. All people would be sent to their hometowns.
The repatriation is underway for the last two years. However, it was stopped in April on grounds of elections in Pakistan. The process has started again started after the completion of polls.
To a question, Afridi said that during current calendar year as many as 1,958 families, comprising of 90,135 individuals, have left for Afghanistan. He said that 80,000 Afghan families had left Pakistan in 2012, adding that they were expecting repatriation of similar number of families this year.
According to UNHCR, 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees were still living in Pakistan. Officials, however, believe that 1.3 million unregistered Afghan are in Pakistan. Thousands of families have been given permanent residence in Pakistan as they have got national identity cards and owning properties and established businesses.
The UNHCR is encouraging voluntary repatriation of the refugees. In this regard, the UNHCR is making attractive offers called repatriation packages, which include $150 in cash per person, edible and non-edible items and transportation facilities.
the pakistan govrnament need to make descion about afghan refuge they lived in pak for last 40 years and they still dont paki ciitzen , they need to send them all or give them full rezidence so they can move out of the camps
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