PESHAWAR, Jan 1: Commissioner for Afghan Refugees, Peshawar Ziaur Rehman on Tuesday pushed Afghan refugees for voluntary repatriation from Pakistan within the next six months.

He was speaking during a one-day policy workshop organised by Repatriation Cell of Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees, Peshawar in collaboration with UNHCR and the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MRR) at a local hotel.

The workshop was organised to strengthen cooperation and coordination among all stakeholders regarding the solutions strategy for Afghan refugees (SSAR) in light of the government of Pakistan’s six months extension for repatriation of Afghan nationals.

The commissioner, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said the deadline of voluntarily repatriation of Afghan refugees would expire at the end of June 2013.

He, however, said the exercise would be based on the spirit of voluntarily return of Afghan refugees and ‘no push policy’ would be adopted for the purpose.

Mr Rehman said UNHCR would remain in Pakistan to provide humanitarian assistance until the last Afghan refugee repatriated voluntarily.

Earlier, Additional Commissioner for Afghan Refugees Waqar Maroof said Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees was working closely with the relevant ministries, UNHCR and other UN agencies to enhance and expedite voluntary repatriation.

He highlighted the three pillars of ‘Solution Strategy for Afghan Refugees’ (SSAR) based on accelerated voluntarily and dignified repatriation from Pakistan, development of host communities and sustainable reintegration in Afghanistan.Also in detail, he shed light on the criteria for the provision of assistance to Afghan returnees and the impact of funding constraints.

The additional commissioner, however, said it was encouraging to see the repatriation of more than 62,000 Afghan refugees in 2012. He said the repatriation process would further be accelerated in the next six months.

“For this purpose, the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees, Peshawar has devised a special operational plan and a realistic manageable strategy for repatriating the maximum number of refugees to their intended destinations in Afghanistan,” he said.