Pakistan to register illegal Afghans

Pakistan has said it will soon launch a comprehensive plan to register around 1.5 million illegal Afghan refugees living in various parts of the country, Pajhwok Afghan News reported Wednesday.

"A plan is ready to register around 1.5 million illegal Afghan refugees and the government would soon start the exercise," Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Minister of States and Frontier Regions Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch as saying Tuesday.

Under an agreement with international organisations, Aghan refugees would have to leave Pakistan by the end of 2015, Baloch added.

Pakistan could no longer afford to carry the burden, the minister said, adding that around three million Afghans had been living in the country.

"It would have been much better if like Iran we had restricted refugees to their camps," he said while admitting that many Afghan refugees had made identity cards, purchased land and constructed houses in Pakistan.