Pakistan government will start documentation of nearly one million undocumented Afghan refugees, a federal minister said on Thursday. Pakistani media reported that Pakistan Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Abdul Qadir Baloch, who also deals with the Afghan refugees, signed an agreement with the country’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). “The documentation process will be completed in 10 months,” Baloch told reporters after the signing of the agreement in Islamabad. “The documentation will remove the complaints by the Afghan government,” the SAFRON minister said, adding that Afghan representatives would be part of the documentation campaign to verify the nationalities of the refugees. Baloch urged the unregistered Afghans to avail this opportunity to avoid any police action against the illegal stay. NADRA will establish over 50 centres for documentation and one Afghan official will join Pakistanis in the centres to monitor the process. Pakistan still hosts around three million Afghan refugees including 1.61 million registered, who hold Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to stay in Pakistan until December 31, 2017, according to the UN refugee agency.
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