Key Findings
Nine 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 one in Baluchistan run by SEHER.
Arrests and detentions of persons of concern increased (69%) in the month of December (83 in December compared to 49 in November 2017). The majority of the arrests were observed in the province of KP (63%), the largest province hosting refugees, followed by Punjab/Sindh (37%).
ALAC teams and the Ministry of SAFRON continue to take proactive steps to mitigate the risk of detention, including enhanced advocacy, 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 programs available for refugees (ALAC posters, brochures & use of social media).
In December 2017, UNHCR and its partners provided legal assistance to a total of 2,451 persons of concern. During the month, UNHCR and its partners intervened at police stations for 83 arrested/detained persons of concern and secured the release of all detained individuals. In the majority of 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. Additionally, ALAC partners provided court representations to 27 persons of concern.
Overall, a decrease in arrest and detention was observed from March to December 2017 with an average of around 132 persons detained per month and subsequently released through interventions of ALAC lawyers.