NADRA enrolls 60,000 Afghans refugees
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Over 60,000 Afghan nationals have been registered so far since the registration process started on October 15 last, officials said Thursday.
The registration programme, launched by the federal government with the collaboration of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), would be completed by the end of this year. Since the Eid-ul-Fitr break, the pace of the registration of Afghans in Pakistan has doubled. More than 45,000 Afghans were registered in the first two weeks. This exercise is aimed to provide a registerer Proof of Registration Card that is valid for three years and recognises the bearer as an Afghan citizen living temporarily in Pakistan.
The registration is a follow-up of a Pakistan government census of Afghans conducted last year (February/March 2005) that counted just over three million Afghans living in Pakistan. More than 580,000 have returned home with the UNHCR assistance since the census, leaving an estimated 2.4 million Afghans still living in Pakistan today. The government’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has set up 100 registration centres, staffed by 2,500 people, while UNHCR and the government’s Commissioner for Afghan Refugees (CAR) have deployed 1,000 staff members to support and monitor the exercise.
So far, the United States, the United Kingdom and European Commission have contributed generously towards the US$6 million registration exercise. Pakistan’s Ministry of States and Frontier Regions has also mobilised its provincial resources. According to Senior Regional Public Information Officer of UNHCR Vivian Tan the UNHCR is trying to give identification to Afghan refugees.
She said it is a wrong perception that process of registration of Afghan refugees will be used for expelling Afghan refugee from Pakistan. She said that the basic purpose of the registration process is to protect Afghan refugees from harassment as after the registration Afghan refugees could legally stay for three years in Pakistan and they could obtain passports and identity cards to prove their identification. She said that it is true that Afghan refugees are afraid of the registration process and they do not want to do so but the UNHCR is trying to convince them for registration.
She said that it is true that the UNHCR is lacking fund for completion of the registration process but the donors have pledged to provide more funds.