By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistan and the UN refugee agency on Thursday formally launched a nationwide project to issue new registration cards to registered Afghan refugees.
The exercise will at the same time, afford hundreds of thousands of young Afghans their first birth certificates.
The new Proof of Registration cards are valid until 31 December 2012 and provide an important identity document for some 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees.
While more than 3.6 million Afghans have returned home with UNHCR’s help since 2002, some 1.6 million continue to seek protection in Pakistan.
‘I note with interest that the Government has a good strategy for the Afghan refugees in Pakistan. And it is heartening to know that one million Afghan children are being issued with birth certificates,’ UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner, T. Alexander Aleinikoff said at the launch.
Aleinikoff hailed the exercise as a landmark decision that would continue to protect millions of Afghans in the host country.
The event took place at one of the renewal centres in Islamabad at which Imran Zeb, the Joint Secretary for the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) represented the Government.
UNHCR’s Country Representative Mengesha Kebede called upon all the registered Afghans to come forward and renew their cards as this will mean continuing protection for the Afghan population.
Afghan children will also receive their first ever birth certificates, which is also recognised by the Government of Afghanistan, a UNHCR statement said.