KARACHI, May 23: Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro, who on Thursday launched Afghan refugees Voluntary Repatriation Operations (VRO) of UNHCR in Karachi, hoped those returning to their country, will be the “goodwill ambassadors” between brotherly countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Speaking at UNHCR’s VRO Centre at Yousuf Goth on Hub River Road, he said he was sure that the returning refugees would play a vital role in reconstruction of their country.

Given the opportunities, Afghan refugees can once again become productive citizens of their country, he observed.

The governor paid tributes to dedicated team of UNHCR for initiating this noble cause of facilitating repatriation of Afghan refugees from Sindh.

He hoped that the UNHCR officials would stay in the province till “we have completely solved refugees problems”.

UNHCR, besides facilitating refugees from Karachi, should also plan similar exercises for Afghan refugees living in interior of Sindh who “desperately need assistance for repatriation to Afghanistan”, he added.

Mohammedmian Soomro said today there are more than 21 million refugees around the world, including three million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

Although a number of countries proved generous in providing asylum to refugees like Pakistan, but while many states live up to their international obligations towards refugees, no systematic system of burden-sharing has been developed, so far.

He said without a system of burden-sharing, it may become difficult for any particular government to host millions of refugees.

In recent years, “we have seen governments refusing to accept refugees as they are so many; refusing to accept them as they are mixed up with economic migrants; refusing to accept them because of lack of burden-sharing amongst states”, he observed.

Earlier, head of UNHCR office in Karachi William Sakataka, said the VRO Centre in Karachi was operational since last two weeks repatriating Afghan refugees to their country by trucks. This is not an organized repatriation but refugees spontaneously and autonomously decide if and when they want to return.

He said today this Voluntary Repatriation Centre has been opened while another one is operational in Gadap and this gives us the capacity to register four to five refugees every day for return.

They are working six day a week, 12 hours a day and many times worked a whole seven days a week, Mr Sakataka informed.

“We assist them by giving cash grants for their travel costs as well as a package containing mattresses, kitchen equipment, hygienic articles etc. while from World Food Programme they receive 150 kg of wheat”.

“So far, we have repatriated close to 50,000 Afghan refugees from Karachi, where about 70 per cent of all Afghans in Sindh are living. But there is still long way to go as there are some 700,000 refugees living in this province. The repatriation figure from Sindh may not seem so high, compared to other provinces, like NWFP, but it is increasing constantly”,

The UNHCR official said ever since UNHCR has been re-established in Sindh, it had an excellent cooperation with the provincial government, and the governor.—PPI/APP