360,000 Afghan refugees want to return: survey

The Population Profiling, Verification and Response (PPVR) survey has revealed that some 360,000 out of 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees want to return to their country.

The survey report was launched by the Ministry of States and Frontier Region (SAFRON) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) here on Friday. The PPVR survey examined the specific needs of Afghans in Pakistan, and generated an accurate and detailed description of the refugee population, including information about their intention to return to Afghanistan, livelihoods, socio-economic and legal conditions. The PPVR exercise ended in December 2011 after survey teams had interviewed almost 1 million refugees, about 65 per cent of the total Afgan refugee population in Pakistan. The voluntary repatriation, which has seen more than 3.8 million Afghans return home in the past ten years, remains at the center of the solution strategy for Afghan refugees that was endorsed at an international conference in May this year in Geneva. Those refugees, who said that they were not yet ready to return to Afghanistan, cited insecurity, unemployment, and lack of shelter as some of the remaining impediments. The PPVR report indicates that the majority, 70 per cent of Afghan population are under the age of 18, and that most were born and raised in Pakistan. Pashtoons constitute the majority of the population (82 per cent) followed by Tajiks (five per cent), Uzbeks (four per cent) and others. A total of 22.53 per cent of the Afghan refugees were found to be economically active, of which males account for 85.59 per cent of the total work force. The Afghan work force mostly comprises adults (age 25 to 59), while 31.3 per cent is made up of youth (age 15 to 24). According to the study, 70 per cent of the Afghan population has one earning family member, while 6 per cent of the households have no bread-winner. It also indicates that around 20 per cent of the working Afghans have collectively invested over Rs. 18 billion in their business in Pakistan. Neill Wright, Representative UNHCR in Pakistan, said "the PPVR provides us with rich and extremely detailed comprehensive data on socio-economic issues, migration patterns, investor potential and other needs for nearly one million individual Afghan refugees. "We now have reliable information on the opportunities and skills that the population in Pakistan will bring to their home country of Afghanistan when they do decide to return." In the education sector, the report highlights that 43 per cent of boys and 67 percent of girls of school-age were never enrolled in schools. High level drop-out rates also prevent most children from completing their primary education. Joint Secretary SAFRON, Dr. Imran Zeb acknowledged that "The Government of Pakistan's new plans for the future voluntary repatriation and management of Afghan refugees are awaiting Prime ministerial and subsequent cabinet approval." The survey will serve the information needs of many stakeholders dealing with the Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan, UNHCR, the Government of Afghanistan and humanitarian and development actors in both countries.