KARACHI, Aug 11: The National Aliens’ Registration Authority (Nara) is going to open field offices in western and central parts of the city and in Malir to facilitate the illegal immigrants to acquire residence and work permits.

As the headquarters of Nara is located in Clifton, near Shireen Jinnah Colony, which is difficult to approach by the illegal immigrants living in shanty towns, the organization has decided to open its field offices near the shanty towns.

The director-general, Nara, Mohammad Saleem Khan, said the head office of the Authority had been set up in Karachi in order to register a maximum number of the aliens as most of them lived in the city.

He said Nara had decided to set up its offices near the kutchi abadis where illegal immigrants lived. It would be easy for the aliens to reach the field offices for registration. He said the field offices would work on the pattern of Nadra’s swift centres. Different NGOs and councillors are cooperating with Nara in its campaign to create awareness among the aliens, he added. Meetings with the representatives of industrial units were also held where they were convinced to hire those illegal immigrants who had a valid residence permit.

Mr Khan said Nara had registered 18,500 adults in the city and issued them residence permits. Their children were also registered with them. He said according to a conservative estimate there were 1.8 million illegal immigrants in Karachi and 3.3 million in the country.

He said most of the aliens living in Karachi were Bengali- speaking, who served as domestic servants, worked at garment factories or were associated with fishing industry.

“We had started registering the Afghans in the past but now we do not issue them residence permits as the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) has started their repatriation,” Saleem Khan said, adding that once Nara issued residence permit, the Afghan nationals would have legal documents to stay in Pakistan which could hamper the UNHCR programme. “This is why we have stopped their registration with Nara,” he maintained.

He said registration of illegal immigrants was being made against a payment of Rs250 each and no coercive measures were being taken in this regard. All illegal immigrants, he said, had been approaching Nara voluntarily for registration. “We are also issuing work permits to the illegal immigrants on a payment of Rs2,500. So far, 200-250 aliens have obtained the work permits.

It has provided them an opportunity to seek employment and bargain their wages with their employers in a respectable manner,” he observed.

Besides, he said, after getting residence or work permits, the illegal immigrants would possess a legal document for a stay and they could not be harassed by police or other law-enforcement agencies.

Sources in Nara said the computerized data of the illegal immigrants were being updated and Nara was in constant touch with Nadra (National Database & Registration Authority) in order to keep tabs on the aliens’ efforts to get national identity cards.

They said Nara registered only those illegal immigrants, who approached the office and submitted information. It only verified the residential address mentioned by the applicant. Besides, it had to believe the information being provided by the applicant.