IRIN
PAKISTAN: Report sheds new light on Afghan refugee community
3 May 2007


ISLAMABAD, 3 May 2007 (IRIN) - The vast majority of Afghan citizens (82 
percent) registered in Pakistan say they had no intention of returning 
to their homeland in the near future, according to the final report on 
the registration of more than two million Afghans living in the country.

The report was launched on Thursday by the Pakistani government and the 
UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

"Now at least we have fixed the number at 2.15 million and have a 
baseline to work from," Vivian Tan, senior regional public information 
officer for UNHCR, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad.

Administered by Pakistan's National Database Authority under the 
auspices of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, Pakistan's 
Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR), and the UN refugee agency, 
the results of a 15-week registration effort set the stage for better 
assisting one of the most protracted refugee situations in the world 
today.

"The basic objective of the registration effort was to fix the Afghan 
refugee population in Pakistan in order to manage the development, 
welfare and more importantly, the phased repatriation of Afghans to 
their homeland with dignity and honor," CAR's head, Nayyar Agha, added.

Under the US $6 million registration drive funded by Pakistan, the 
European Commission, the USA and Britain, all Afghans above the age of 
five who registered received Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, valid 
for three years, recognising them as Afghan citizens temporarily living 
in the country. Many of them have lived in the country for decades. 
(Children under five are listed on one of their parents' cards).

But it was the demographics and socio-economic profiles of Thursday's 
report which proved most interesting, showing that the Afghans living in 
Pakistan were by no means a monolithic entity.

Close to 300,000 or nearly 14 percent of registered Afghans reported 
having special needs, including the need for special legal and physical 
protection, as well as female-headed households, important medical 
conditions and children/youth at risk.

"This information could help us and the two governments [Pakistan and 
Afghanistan] to find solutions for each group in the coming years," Tan 
said.

Equally interesting was the very young age of the Afghan population in 
the country, with 74 percent being under the age of 28, suggesting that 
many were born and raised in Pakistan since the influx of Afghan 
refugees first began in 1979 following the Soviet invasion of 
Afghanistan.

"The Afghan population's young age is interesting in the sense that many 
were probably born in exile and have few links with Afghanistan," Tan 
said. "They are a source of great potential whether in Pakistan or 
Afghanistan, but need to be developed through education and vocational 
training," the UNHCR official added.

But that will prove a key challenge in the coming years, with 
approximately 71 percent of the Afghans registered having no formal 
education, and only 20 percent actually active in Pakistan's labour 
market.

Of the later, almost half worked as unskilled or daily wage labourers. 
Moreover, 83 percent of working Afghans earned less than Pakistan's 
minimum wage of US $67 per month.

Yet another interesting finding of the report is that while in a 2005 
census of Afghans in Pakistan, most people cited lack of shelter, land 
and livelihoods in their homeland as the primary impediments to their 
return, security had now emerged as the primary barrier.

Of those registered, 41.6 percent cited security as their foremost 
concern, followed by shelter at almost 31 percent, and livelihoods at 
24.4 percent.

Nonetheless, the issue of access to land/shelter remains a major barrier 
for many Afghans returning as well, with 89 percent reporting to be 
landless.

According to the report, 64 percent of those registered live in 
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan, 
while 21 percent live in Balochistan further to the south.

Currently, Afghans constitute six percent of NWFP's population and 5.9 
percent in Balochistan.

Close to a million Afghans live in 86 camps across the country, 
indicating that more than half (55 percent) of all registered Afghans 
live outside camps, the report said.

In terms of places of origin, 21 percent originate from Afghanistan's 
south-eastern Nangarhar province, followed by Kabul (11.2 percent), the 
northern province of Kunduz (9.7 percent) and the southeastern provinces 
of Logar and Paktya (6.6 percent), respectfully.


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