UNHCR Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, 11 Jan (UNHCR) - The government of Pakistan and the UN Refugee Agency have agreed to conduct a census of all Afghans in the country during February 2005 which will provide the first detailed information on their numbers and background.

The agreement was formally endorsed at a meeting on Tuesday between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, and the Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind.

Lubbers, on an official visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan, arrived in Islamabad early in the morning. He began the series of meetings with government leaders scheduled for his 24-hour visit by holding talks with Rind, whose ministry deals with Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The census, in which all Afghans who arrived in Pakistan after 1 December 1979 must participate, will assist the government and UNHCR in developing policies for those Afghans who do not return home before the end of the UNHCR voluntary assisted repatriation programme in March 2006.

UNHCR Country Representative Guenet Guebre-Christos and Secretary SAFRON Sajid Hussain Chattha sign the agreement, while UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind and Joint Secretary SAFRON Riaz-ur-Rehman stand behind. © UNHCR/A.Shahzad

"This will provide the information we all need to search for a solution for those Afghans who will remain in Pakistan after the end of the Tripartite Agreement in 2006," said Sajid Hussain Chattha, secretary of SAFRON.

Guenet Guebre-Christos, representative of UNHCR in Pakistan, explained: "While we agree that the repatriation of all Afghans to Afghanistan is the preferred goal, UNHCR and the government of Pakistan know that not all will return in the remaining time of the Tripartite Agreement. This census will help us to develop policies for dealing with those who remain."

The preliminary phase, mapping out concentrations of Afghan population in preparation for the census, is already underway across the country. The actual census will be carried out in the second half of February.

The census will include all Afghans who arrived in Pakistan since the beginning of December 1979, covering those who came during the quarter century of war inside Afghanistan that caused millions of residents to flee abroad.

Any Afghan who does not participate and cannot provide a compelling explanation will be treated according to Pakistani laws. Only those included in the census will be eligible to take part in a proposed registration later in the year that could provide some sort of document.

The census will be carried out over a period of approximately 10 days by teams, each with a man and a woman, who will conduct interviews with all families in their homes.

Afghans will be able to find out in advance when census teams will be in their areas and should ensure they are at home. Only Afghans will be recorded and anyone who has a validly obtained Pakistani identification card will be excluded.

Census takers will record the gender, ethnicity, address and source of livelihood for all Afghans. They will also record when Afghans arrived in Pakistan and whether or not they intend to return to Afghanistan by the end of the voluntary repatriation programme.

UNHCR and the Government of Pakistan are agreed that the voluntary repatriation of Afghan citizens from Pakistan, under the Tripartite Agreement which expires in 2006, is the preferred goal and extra efforts will be made for that because of improving circumstances in Afghanistan.

In the past three years UNHCR has assisted nearly 2.3 million Afghans to return from Pakistan and anticipates a further 400,000 will repatriate during 2005. However, the UN Refugee Agency believes about a million Afghans now remain in refugee camps and an unknown, but substantial number, are living in Pakistani cities.


United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan

UNHCR and Government of Pakistan agree on census of Afghans in Pakistan