Pakistani Cabinet To Hold Meeting Regarding Afghan Refugees

On Wednesday, the Dawn newspaper reported that the federal cabinet of Pakistan will hold a meeting to decide the fate of Afghan migrants.

A government official stated that a decision is likely to be made to extend the residence of Afghan migrants holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards by six months to one year.

This meeting follows a discussion between Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Filippo Grandi, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Grandi had requested the Pakistani government not to expel migrants holding residence cards.

A senior UN official mentioned that currently more than 1.3 million Afghan migrants are living in Pakistan with residence cards.

The Pakistani newspaper reported that Sharif complained during his meeting with Grandi about the inefficiency of the UNHCR in Islamabad. He stated that in the past three years, of 70,000 Afghan migrants, only 9,000 have been sent to third countries.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan noted that the UNHCR had pledged to relocate 70,000 Afghan migrants who arrived in Pakistan after the fall of Kabul in 2021 to third countries but has not fulfilled this commitment in the past three years.

On Tuesday, the UNHCR office in Pakistan announced that Grandi, at the conclusion of his three-day visit, urged enhanced efforts to secure long-term solutions for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and to provide support to the host country.