Legal Assistance 34,423
Arrests & detentions - 3,193 *
Interventions 2,013 **
Releases 3,191 ***
Key findings
Ten Advice and Legal Aid Centres (ALAC) are operational in the main refugeehosting areas of four provinces in order to provide free legal support to persons of concern: four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), one in Sindh and three in Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) through partnership agreements with SHARP and two in Baluchistan each run by SEHER & CRS.
Arrests and detentions of persons of concern decreased in August (101 in August compared to 160 in July 2017). The majority of the arrests were observed in the province of KP (77%). In general the protection situation remained calm in August with no significant incidents.
ALAC teams and the Ministry of SAFRON take proactive steps to mitigate the risk of detention including enhanced advocacy and pre-emptively intervening at police stations to prevent arrests and enhancing the response capacity of partners. UNHCR has developed and disseminated additional awareness raising material on legal assistance program for refugees (ALAC posters, brochures & use of social media).
In August 2017, UNHCR and its partners provided legal assistance to a total of 4,106 persons of concern. During the month, UNHCR and its partners intervened at police stations for 95 arrested/detained persons of concern and secured the release of all detained individuals. In the majority of all cases, UNHCR and its partners managed to obtain the release of the arrested refugees before the official lodging of charges against them which resulted in their release from detention within 24 hours. (note: CRS-ILAC does not provide interventions at police stations for short detentions).
Overall, a decrease in arrest and detention was observed from March till August 2017. ALAC teams continued to disseminate the official notification issued by the Ministry of SAFRON on 24 February regarding the Federal Cabinet’s decision to extend the validity of the PoR cards providing proof of legal stay for registered Afghan refugees until the end of 2017.
1UNHCR funds 9 ALACs and CRS, as UNHCR’s operational partner, funds 1 InformaƟon and Legal Aid Centre (ILAC) in Balochistan. SHARP operates in KP, Punjab and Sindh. SEHER has implemented UNHCR funded ALAC legal aid services in Balochistan in the month of April.
*Actual numbers of arrests / detentions / ** Interventions made by ALAC at police stations to secure the release of PoCs / *** Additionally 50 PoR cardholders were released through court interventions by CRS-ILAC in Balochistan