The government and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) have agreed to either relocate or repatriate more than 30,000 Afghan refugees from the Islamabad city by September 15. This was decided at a meeting between Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao and UNHCR representative Guenet Guebre-Christos, according to an official statement. The UNHCR assured Pakistan of support to relocate the refugees to camps outside the federal capital. All of them would be later repatriated to Afghanistan under the UNHCR repatriation programme. The meeting decided to give the Afghan village in I-11 sector of Islamabad three choices that included returning to Afghanistan under the UNHCR programme, shift to the Kot Chandana refugee camp in Mianwali district (Punjab) or to relocate to any refugee camp in Pakistan. The meeting also decided that the refugees would be assured of enough accommodation in the refugee camps they chose to relocate to. It further decided to close down two refugee camps in Bajaur and Kurram Agencies (tribal area) by August 31 and to allow refugees in those camps to relocate to refugee camps of their choice. The Interior Ministry asked law enforcement and intelligence agencies to assure smooth relocation or repatriation of the refugees. Under the repatriation plan, refugees from the Afghan village in Sector I-11 (Islamabad) would be repatriated. The village consists of mud houses inhabited by Afghan refugees for many years. In wake of the security situation in Pakistan, the government decided a few days ago to speed up the repatriation of more than 2.9 million Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan.
