QUETTA, Sept 17: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is considering the government’s proposal for conducting a census of Afghan refugees in the country, UNHCR spokesman Jack Redden said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a dinner hosted by the UNHCR, he said: “Pakistan’s proposal about the census of Afghan refugees in the next few months is being discussed.”

He said the UNHCR would extend cooperation to ascertain the number of Afghan refugees in the country if there was an agreement among the parties concerned .

He said the UNHCR was not aware of the exact population of Afghan refugees in Pakistan

He said 300,000 refugees had returned to Afghanistan under the voluntary repatriation programme.

“Pakistan’s government and the UNHCR are not forcing any refugee to go back,” Mr Redden said and added that the agency planned to complete the voluntary repatriation by 2005.

He said 1.58 million Afghan refugees had returned to their homeland during the last one-and-a-half years and more were contacting UNHCR reporting centres for voluntary reparation.

He said the UNHCR planned to close the Roghani and Dara-1 refugee camps near Chaman and another on in the NWFP, which were established after 9/11 attacks temporarily. He said the Killi Faizo camp had been closed.

He said the UNHCR was planning to wind up the repatriation operation by 2005, after which the tripartite commission of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR would decide the status of the remaining refugees.

Replying to a question, Mr Redden said: “We have no information about return or influx of new refugees into Pakistan.”

He did not agree with a suggestion that Afghans were staying back for economic reasons and said all of them were political refugees.

He said the refugees were informed about the situation in their country some of them visited their areas before planning their repatriation.

He said the residents of the closed camps would be asked to return to Afghanistan or relocated to other camps.

He said that the UN was trying to create conducive conditions in Afghanistan for an early return of the refugees.

He said the UN was issuing appeals for more resources and funds for the revival of Afghanistan’s economy and creating job opportunities.

He said there were 50,000 refugees in the Zari Dasht camp near Kandahar and there was a capacity for 10,000 more. He said refugees were leaving the camp as living conditions were improving in their villages and towns.