KOHAT, Sept 28: Out of 61,363 Afghan families living in camps in Kohat and Kurram Agency only 2,139 have been repatriated to their country with the help of UNHCR so far.

Administrator Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) Ibrahim Khan told Dawn on Saturday that according to an agreement reached between the UNHCR and the government, the stay of Afghans in Pakistan would become illegal beyond September 2005, the final date fixed for repatriation of people “displaced” during Russian war and later due to infighting.

It has also been decided, in principle, that no refugee would be given Pakistani nationality.

According to figures obtained from the local office of the Afghan commissionerate there are 1,51,529 refugees living in Kohat camps and 2,38,680 in newly set up camps in the Kurram Agency.

Mr Ibrahim said that a total of 1,050 families were sent back to Afghanistan from Kohat whereas 1,089 were repatriated to their native country from the Kurram Agency during the current year. He said that the number of refugees repatriated stood at 17,368 who were paid Rs5,000 in addition to wheat and other food items on arrival in their native province in Afghanistan by the UNHCR.

Independent sources confided to Dawn that at least 20 per cent of the refugees repatriated during 2003 had returned back through unfrequented routes by bribing the border security force personnel either due to the fighting going on between the allied forces and the Taliban or to avail the grant again and again.

They also said that the actual number of refugees living in Pakistan was much higher than those registered with the CAR as they had obtained national IDs and residing outside camps in all the four provinces and the real challenge would be to send such people back by September 2003.