Nangarhar ready to welcome new returnees from Pakistan

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): The Refugee and Repatriation Department of eastern Nangarhar province is fully prepared to assist Afghan refugees to be expelled from Pakistan in the second phase of their repatriation after Eidul Fitr.

Baz Mohammad Abdul Rahman, director of the department, said they held meetings with NGOs in this regard and they pledged assistance to the returnees.

He said more than 90,000 families or half a million people returned to the country in the first phase of repatriation of “undocumented aliens” since November last year.

He added about 92,286 families, comprising 535,562 individuals, returned to the country and 70 percent of them were resettled in Nangarhar province.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) and partner institutions had provided assistance to each family twice or thrice, he explained.

Rahman said the repatriated families needed assistance in terms of shelter, food and non-food items, cash, vocational training, rent of house, clean drinking water, health, small businesses, agriculture and livestock and some other areas.

He added the Pakistani government might begin the second phase of the deportation of Afghan refugees after Eid-ul-Fitr and they had already started preparations in this regard.

Pakistan plans to start expelling Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders on April 15.

The decision to expel Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders came at a high-level meeting in the port city of Karachi, the Pakistani media reported.

On the other hand, refugees returning from Pakistan to their homeland are happy but they need shelter and job opportunities.

Haji Zhargi, who returned from Peshawar and currently is living in Sararod district, was concerned about lack of education and job for his children.

He told Pajhwok: “My children were studying in Pakistan. After returning to the country, I became jobless.”

Atal Khan, who lived in Peshawar and returned to the country a few months ago, said unemployment had made his life miserable.

Officials of the caretaker government have repeatedly pledged providing job opportunities as well as shelter to the returnees.

kk/ma

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