PESHAWAR: The Japanese government will donate $2.7 million to support the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ programme in Pakistan, said a statement issued on Friday.

The donation was announced two days after the visit of Japanese Ambassador Takashi Kurai to the UN voluntary repatriation centre at Azakhel in Nowshera district.

It said Ambassador Kurai and UN Agency Country Representa­tive in Pakistan Ruvendrini Menikdiwela would sign an agreement in this regard on Oct 3.

The ambassador visited the repatriation centre at Azakhel and interacted with the refugees who got their documents processed. Officials said the ambassador was briefed about the registration process and management of the refugees in Pakistan.

Afghan director general of the commissionerate Waqar Maroof while briefing the ambassador said the repatriation process would be suspended ahead of winter in the host country. He said the repatriation process would resume in March 2019.

The government has already extended stay of refugees and other registered Afghan nationals for nine months in Pakistan till June 2019. Pakistan is currently hosting more than 1.4m registered Afghan refugees apart from 850,000 Afghans who were issued Afghan Citizens Cards.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2018