KABUL - The Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation has proposed an emergency trilateral meeting with Pakistan and the United Nations, an official said on Wednesday.
Pakistan extended, apparently for the last time, the deadline for Afghan refugees’ stay in the country until March, 2017.
But the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has halted the repatriation of Afghan refugees to Afghanistan until March 2017 due to the advent of winter.
“This issue has raised concerns for us. How can thousands of Afghan refugees return to Afghanistan in a month or weeks now when the returning process has been delayed and the deadline by Pakistan is approaching,” said Hafiz Ahmad Miakhel, media advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Refugees.
According Miakhel, Pakistani Refugees Minister Abdul Qader Baloch, who visited Kabul a few months ago, had signed an agreement with the Afghan government extending the deadline to the end of 2017.
But Pakistan backed out of the agreement and the final decision would come from the Pakistani Cabinet.
Miakhel said earlier November 15, 2016 had been set the deadline for unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where hundreds of unregistered Afghan refugees lived and could not return in the short time.
He also said the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation had urged Pakistan and the United Nations refugee agency to hold an emergency trilateral meeting on the refugees and reach upon an agreement. However, no decision has been made as yet.
Duniya Aslam Khan, UNHCR spokeswoman in Islamabad, said UNHCR and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan had mutually agreed to suspend the return of registered Afghan refugees during hash months of winter. 
She said the routine voluntary repatriation programme would resume on March 1, 2017. In the month of November, UNHCR would only facilitate the return of those Afghan refugees who had been already scheduled for return from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“On the extension of the stay of Afghan refugees in Pakistan beyond March 2017, it is too early to speculate anything,” she said.
The All Parties Conference or APC called by the Prime Minister of Pakistan on September 21 had proposed some positive recommendations to the Cabinet including a predicable timeline for the return of refugees from Pakistan, Khan said, adding UNHCR stayed committed to advocating on behalf of refugees for their protection.
She also said over 148,000 registered Afghan refugees returned to Afghanistan in October 2016, taking to 333,816 the number of refugees returning to Afghanistan this year. (Pajhwok)