Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) government has reaffirmed its commitment to provide free education and health facilities to Afghan refugees and said that these facilities were provided by provincial government in the past and it would continue to do so.
However, for the better management of the Afghan refugees, the assistance of the international community is very necessary. On Tuesday, a meeting regarding the management of Afghan refugees in KP, was held in the Chief Minister Secretariat, Peshawar.
On behalf of KP chief minister, the meeting was presided over by KP’s Health Senior Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai and Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan. It was attended by the representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Indrika Rat Watte, Azam Afandi, Dr Ghazna, Fridullah Khan, Elementary and Secondary Education Secretary M. Shezad Bangash, Special Secretary Home Siraj Ahmad Khan, ex-Afghan ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand, high ups of Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and other concerned departments.
The meeting discussed different affairs regarding the voluntarily repatriation of the refugees and their durable rehabilitation to their country, the administrative matters of the registered and non registered refugees in the province and facilities of health and education for Afghan refugees.
During the meeting, Shahram Khan Tarakai said that all health facilities were being provided to the refugees and hospitals, throughout the province, would continue the provision of health facilities in future, too. He said the problems regarding health and education would be solved as soon as possible.
Matters regarding Home Department and other sectors would be brought to CM’s notice and provincial government would send its recommendations to federal government.
Minister Atif Khan told the meeting that we considered Afghan refugees as our own brothers. He said no stone would be unturned to further strengthen these relations, and provision of free education to Afghan children would be continued with UNHCR’s coordination.
Siraj Ahmad Khan told the meeting that the CM had taken strong notice of the complaints regarding mockery of Afghan refugees and had categorically directed to inform the concerned police about such complaints. He said it was demand of the province to immediately register the unregistered refugees, and we would provide all facilities including, security to the concerned institutions. He said the province had no financial resources to register them; the ministry of SAFRON should register the unregistered refugees.
Representative of UNHCR said that about 283,997 refugees had voluntarily migrated from Pakistan to Afghanistan from January 2016 to October 22, 2016 and in the same period about 228,091 refugees voluntarily migrated from KP. He said steps like effective border management should be taken for the safe voluntarily migration of the refugees.
About 831,013 refugees are still residing in the province which is about 60pc of the total number of Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan, he added. There is a need to prepare comprehensive policy for good arrangement regarding Afghan refugees.
Ex-ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand also addressed the meeting.
