ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is the second largest refugees hosting country in the world, National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights was told on Tuesday.
At least 1.4 million registered Afghans are living in Pakistan of whom 0.81 have documents while 0.7 millions are living without documents.
Joint Secretary from the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions informed committee about the plight of Afghan Refugees.
With 1.4 million registered Afghans, Pakistan is the second largest refugees hosting country in the world. “Those Afghans who came to Pakistan after August 2021 are not refugees, they are asylum seekers who want to go further to Europe, America,” the committee was told. Most of these asylum seekers are living in urban areas.
According to UNHCR procedure, they will take 3 to 5 years to reach their destination in Europe. According to director from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan cannot afford more refugees in Pakistan.
These newcomers want to go to different countries but when they contacted relevant embassies they were informed that those countries were not ready to look after these refugees anymore.
Representative of Afghan refugees informed the committee about these issues. The committee was not satisfied with the offers made by Interior, Foreign Affairs and Safron ministries.
The Committee asked the relevant ministries to present complete details regarding Afghan refugees.
The committee directed the relevant ministries to come with proper preparedness, solution and proposals regarding this issue