ISLAMABAD: The Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt. Gen (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said the government was committed to provide employment opportunities to around 3mn Afghan refugees living across the country till their return.
Talking to APP in an interview, he said around 1.6 mln is the registered number of Afghan refugees by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) while the un- registered number was 1.5mn besides this which is living illegally in KPK, Balochistan and most of them are in Karachi.
"The government extended their Refugee card till December 2015 and after that we want their peaceful return to Afghanistan with the support of international community," he said, adding that there were evidences that many of the Afghan refugees were found guilty in many crimes across the country due to the unemployment, so the ministry was having consultations with the Norwegian Refugees Council to create employment opportunities for the refugees.
It is the less earning opportunities that people get involve in crimes to meet their expenses. The refugees have no proper country so they have no employment which forces them to get engage in criminal activities.
He said the Karzai government in Afghanistan marked 48 areas for resettlement of refugees but never took this issue seriously and only a few refugees returned in last 10 years.
The Afghan government was offering them place to live in villages but during their stay in Pakistan, they were spending lives in urban areas due to which it was difficult to resettle them in villages.
The ministry has planned a new policy for which the representatives from government will visit Afghanistan soon to discuss the return of refugees as the new government was taking keen interest in this issue.
Besides the responsibility of Afghan refugees, the government was also taking care of the IDPs as about 1mn were dislocated from North Waziristan in Zarb-e-Azb. "Though we are facilitating them but still we cannot pay them the cost of leaving their homes, their routine lives and leaving occupations as they have financial problems and they were not comfortable," Baloch said.
Responding to a question, the minister said that IDPs were not going back in some of the areas in the first phase of operation as there was a risk of using the local population by the terrorists as human shield.
The government was providing education to the children of IDPs in their shelter camps while efforts were underway to adjust some of the students in local schools temporarily to continue their education for which the ministry was focusing on provision of additional funds.
The government has assured the availability of all kinds of health facilities and doctors in the camps to give them proper medical facilities.
"For the upcoming harsh winter season, we have made arrangements for keeping them warm while the NGOs are also actively participating in this regard," he remarked.
For both the refugees and IDPs, the government plans their return soon and focuses on facilitating them at maximum level till their stay in Pakistan.
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