ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: The government has set Sept 1 deadline for moving Afghan refugee camps out of Islamabad and Kurram and Bajaur agencies, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao said on Monday. Addressing a press conference here, the minister also said that 81 Afghan students studying in different madressahs in the country would be sent back to their country like other foreign students.

“Another 2,000 Afghan students are refugees and do not fall in the category of foreign students under the tripartite accord about refugees. Therefore, they would not be expelled.”

Mr Sherpao said the process of shifting refugee camps would start from August 15 and would be completed by Sept 1 this year. The minister said refugees who wanted to return to their country voluntarily would be repatriated, while others would be shifted to new places.

Responding to a question, he said the relocation of refugee camps was being done for security reasons. The minister said other stakeholders involved in the repatriation and relocation process had agreed to the arrangement.

“Afghan refugees in these camps will first be asked to voluntarily return to their country and if they refuse, they will be relocated,” he said.

“Refugees living in sector I-11 of Islamabad would be shifted to Kot Chandana in Mianwali if they did not return to Afghanistan by the Sept 1 deadline, he added. The relocation sites for Kurram and Bajaur camps were yet to be decided. “They can be shifted to other nearby camps,” Mr Sherpao said.

The minister said he had met the chief commissioner Afghan refugees, the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan and the UNHCR country representative and all of them had agreed to the plan for relocating the camps.