ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: Over half a million Afghans have been registered in Pakistan during the current government exercise to provide official documentation to Afghan nationals, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said here on Wednesday.

The exercise is a follow-up to a government census of Afghans conducted in March last year. Only Afghans counted in the census can take part in the registration which started on October 15 and is expected to run till the end of the year.

The registration is implemented by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) with the support of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees and the UN refugee agency. Afghans whose names are not in the system are not registered. But some keep coming back to try their luck, while others shop around different registration centres with the same hope.

The authorities have put a stop to unofficial parties trying to sell forms and cards to these “rejected” cases. “They are clogging up the system and preventing eligible Afghans from registering,” said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR’s assistant representative in Pakistan. “Those who did not participate in the census will be assessed by the government at a later stage.” Photos, too, have generated some controversy. In one camp in the NWFP, refugee elders threatened to fine men Rs5,000 and a buffalo if they allowed their women to be photographed. The issue was resolved after UNHCR staff spoke to the elders and Nadra hired female photographers to facilitate the process. To date, 73 percent of women registered countrywide have had their photos taken.

“We are collecting key information on the remaining Afghan population in Pakistan to better understand their situation here and what’s preventing them from returning home. Together with the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, we hope this will help us in the planning of policies to manage the future of Afghans in Pakistan,” said Ratwatte.

While 507,000 is an impressive figure in any registration by a host country, it accounts for only about 20 percent of the estimated 2.4 million Afghans believed to be living in Pakistan. Given the scale of the exercise and the complex population involved, the registration has to overcome many challenges to cross the half million mark.