Islamabad:
The federal government has decided to close Afghan refugee camps which have been active for 40 years, ordering the closure of five of these facilities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), after the return of refugees in their country of origin.
The Ministry of Cashmere and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs have made a notification, ordering that the land land will be given to the provincial government and to the deputy commissioners of the districts concerned.
The five camps closed in KP included three camps in the Haripur district, one in Chitral and one at the top of the range. The Panian camp in Haripur alone housed more than 100,000 refugees, according to officials.
The government began to return undelated Afghan refugees in October 2023, citing reasons to increase crime and terrorism. Earlier this week, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif repeated that Afghan refugees were linked to terrorism in Balutchistan and KP.
In Quetta, recently, the chief minister of Balutchistan, Mir Sarfraz Bugti, met with acting Afghan Consul Maulvi Muhammad Habib Nasir to discuss the return of refugees and the dignified repatriation in Afghanistan.
Bugti said the process would be progressive and human, with special arrangements for the elderly, women and children. He added that the provincial government coordinated with UNHCR to ensure that the repatriation was dignity.
According to UNHCR, the majority of Afghan refugees in Pakistan currently reside in KP. However, the chief minister of KP, Ali Amin Gandapur, opposed forced repatriations, while his information advisor recently asked for an immediate stop in the process.
