Pakistan has allowed the nearly three million Afghan refugees to stay on for an additional six months. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked authorities to take up the issue of their return with Afghan and UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) officials.
Afghanistan had earlier asked to extend the stay for two more years so that it could prepare to receive the refugees.
According to UNHCR, there are 1.6 million registered and another 1 million unregistered refugees in Pakistan. Pakistan last week called for international support as it warned that without help, the flow of those fleeing Afghanistan’s decades-long war to Europe could increase.