May 27, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, May 26: Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind on Friday said that strategy had been finalised for the complete repatriation of Afghan refugees in next three years.

The minister stated this while talking to ambassadors of 13- donors countries who were briefed here in a meeting organized by Safron Division.

He told donor representatives that the process of Afghan refugees influx began in 1979, after Soviet invasion. Census made in 2005, showed 3.040 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The majority of them were settled in NWFP (57pc) and Balochistan (25pc) Punjab (7pc) Sindh (4pc) and rest in Northern Areas and Kashmir, he said.

Ministry officials enlightened the delegation about process of data collection, policy planning implementation, registration modalities and re-registration mechanism. The registration process had considered Afghan population above 05-years of age.

Chairman Nadra briefed the participants about the efficient manner of issuing PoR (Proof of Registration) form to all Afghan refugees for security concerns, monitoring, implementation and evaluation of our policy.

We had used 103 vans and had run 34 mobile centres for this task to be carried out successfully.

Secretary Safron Sajid Hussain Chattha said that a steering committee had to be finalized with representation of UNHCR, interior, foreign, Safron Division of Government of Pakistan and donor countries to recommend final return modality by August 2006.