October 18, 2006	Wednesday	Ramazan 24, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Oct 17: Afghan refugees are facing problems at the National Database and Registration Authority’s registration centres with many refugee families finding their names missing from the census list.

Nadra staff, conducting the first-ever registration process, said that at one registration centre in Peshawar about 100 Afghan families had come since Sunday, but of them only 10 families were found to have been registered.

“Because their names are missing from the census record (the registeration) process is lengthy and complicated,” he said. Afghan families also complained about the complicated procedure.

Pakistan Census Organisation of the Federal Ministry of Population had conducted census of the Afghan refugees across the country in 2005.

Nadra staff said that census lists provided to them might be mixed up with other area lists, creating problems for the Afghans.

Representatives of the UN refugee agency here said that their monitoring teams had reported the same problem from different centres and they were looking into the matter.

UN refugee agency and staff of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees were verifying names against the census lists. Census report said that Peshawar is home to over 700,000 Afghan refugees.