PESHAWAR, Sept 15: Countrywide registration of Afghans will begin from October 15 to segregate genuine refugees from illegal immigrants.

The National Database and Registration Authority and the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees will jointly conduct the registration process being financed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

This was decided at a meeting on Friday, which was attended by the NADRA director-general and senior officials of the commissionerate and the NWFP home department, said a press release.

Initially, it said, the NADRA and the CAR would launch a pilot registration programme in selected camps in the NWFP from October 1.

An official said that after completion of the registration programme, the NADRA would issue temporary cards to Afghans, allowing them to stay here for three years.

“Main objective of the registration programme is to ascertain the number of legal and illegal Afghans living in camps and rural and urban areas,” he said.

He said that despite the registration and provision of temporary cards, voluntary repatriation programme would continue and the government was determined to abolish certain camps, including those in Kacha Garhi and Jalozi.