PESHAWAR: The UNHCR and Afghan commissionerate has planned to open the second voluntary repatriation centre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to cope with the huge influx of refugees leaving for their country.

“The second VRC in Azakhel area of Nowshera district will become operational before Eidul Azha to facilitate returning refugees,” a relevant official told Dawn on Wednesday.

The official said the decision was made to reduce load on the VRC Chamkani in Peshawar, where refugees had to wait for five to six days for the verification of documents.

Official says facility to be functional in Nowshera before Eid

He said the documents of around 500 Afghan families were processed at the Chamkani VRC daily and as the authorities anticipated surge in the number, the opening of another such centre to facilitate returning Afghans was planned.

The official said around 10,000 refugee families were expected to return after Eidul Azha.

He said 65,000 refugees had returned since last June, which was an encouraging development.

The official said the Chamkani VRC could process 500 families a day.

“Before June, only five to 10 families used to approach the Chamkani VRC for document verification and the current influx is beyond our expectations,” he said.

Besides Chamkani, another VRC is functioning in Balochistan’s Chaman area as well.

The undocumented Afghan nationals are also going back to Afghanistan.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, more than 60 undocumented Afghans have crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

The UNHCR has extended working days to six a week in two shifts in view of the growing number of Afghan refugees wanting to register themselves for cash assistance.

Every refugee is paid $400 after reaching own district.

In addition, medical staff will also work in double shift. Only the Proof of Registration Card holders qualify for receiving cash assistance from the UN agency.

Officials said the proposed VRC in Azakhel would have the capacity to process documents of 500 families daily.

The authorities had also acquired land in Amangarh area of Nowshera, where trucks loaded with household items of returning refugee families, would park before proceeding to Afghanistan.

The facility has the capacity to park 800-1000 trucks.

The figures shared by the Peshawar police show during the current year, a total of 9,653 Afghans staying in Peshawar illegally were arrested.

Many Afghans allege that the city police were even rounding up those having PoR Cards as well as legal refugees and forcing them into leave the country.

The police however insisted they had issued clearly directed chiefs and personnel of all police stations not to pester the Afghans having PoR Cards or those staying legally in the country.

On August 11, KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had said the registration of illegal Afghans living in Pakistan was likely to start by October.

He had said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) would provide funds for the purpose.

In a message posted on Twitter the same day, PTI chief Imran Khan had called for end to harassment of Afghan refugees.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016