March 26, 2007	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1428

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PESHAWAR, March 25: Thousands of unregistered Afghans thronged the voluntary repatriation centre of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees near Hayatabad on Sunday for verification to proceed to their homeland.

The government has set the April 15 deadline for those Afghans who did not have Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to get verification documents from the UN refugee agency.

Officials said that during the grace period, the unregistered Afghans would be eligible to receive monetary assistance from the UNHCR. But after the deadline, they would not be entitled to the assistance and would also face deportation, they added.

The UN agency has announced that each unregistered Afghan would get $100 during this period. However, the refugees will get this financial assistance only after they reach their destination in Afghanistan.

The officials said the deadline and financial assistance had caused rush at the verification centre.

UNHCR officials during the scrutiny have detected a large number of Afghan families who have arrived from across the border to get financial assistance.

“We detect 50 families every day who have come back from Afghanistan to claim the financial assistance and the inflow continues,” said a UNHCR official at the verification centre.

He said that about 700 to 800 families were being verified daily, adding that the UN agency had called additional staff to cope with the situation. “We expect more rush in the days to come.”

Long queues of buses, trucks, wagons and vans loaded with families, households and cattle could be seen outside the centre waiting for clearance.

Afghan families said that they had been waiting at the centre for the last three days to get verification documents.

Habib Khan, a native of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, said that he along with children had been waiting under the open sky for the last three days. He also complained of mismanagement at the centre.

The huge rush has prompted the authorities to enhance security measures at the centre. The officials said three platoons of the Frontier Constabulary were called on Sunday morning to assist police force and Afghan Commissionerate’s security staff.

The government with the assistance of the UNHCR has launched a registration process of the Afghans across the country and so far more than 2.2 million Afghans have been issued PoR cards, validating their stay for the next three years.