PESHAWAR: Despite the continuing process of voluntary repatriation of Afghans, the number of registered refugees in Pakistan was growing steadily as approximately 50,000 children are born to refugee families every year.

The UN Refugee Agency has said that the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) would register some 150,000 children born to the registered parents in past five years and issue birth certificates to over 330,000 Afghan children below the age of 18.

UNHCR spokesperson Dunya Islam Khan said that around 182,000 refugee children who had reached the age of five would get their separate Proof of Registration (PoR) cards by the end of the year.

She said that of total 330,000 Afghan children born to the registered parents, about 150,000 children below the age of five would be registered, but they woulld not get separate PoR cards.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2014