Child Protection Bureau makes major progress in reuniting missing Afghan children with their parents

The Child Protection Bureau has reunited nearly 100 Afghan children with their parents and relatives over the past three years.

Lahore: The Family Tracing Team of the Child Protection Bureau Punjab has traced the parents of two children who fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan, after which both the children were handed over to the Afghan Refugee Center Islamabad after completing the legal proceedings.

Sessions Judge of the Child Protection Court Amjad Nazir Chaudhry issued orders for the extradition of the children.

A child named Rehmatullah entered Pakistan from Kandahar in a truck, reached Chishtian via Peshawar, from where he was taken into custody by the Bahawalpur Child Protection Bureau and transferred to Lahore. At that time, he was about 12 years old. While Hamza son of Shams was rescued from the limits of the Civil Lines police station in Lahore on October 31, 2024.

According to Chairperson Child Protection Bureau, Sara Ahmed, the parents of Afghan children Rehmatullah and Hamza Shams were searched in the cities of Jalalabad and Kandahar in Afghanistan with the cooperation of the Afghan Embassy. The children have been handed over to Asif Zadran, Director of the Afghan Refugee Center Islamabad, who will make arrangements to transfer them back to Afghanistan.

She said that the organization’s top priority is to reunite lost and helpless children with their families, and this mission is being carried out not only in Punjab but also in other provinces and Afghanistan.

According to the Chairperson, during the last three years, the Child Protection Bureau has reunited about 100 Afghan children with their parents and relatives, most of whom were either runaways or at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.

Sarah Ahmed said that the Child Protection Bureau is in close contact with the Afghan government, diplomatic missions and various provincial institutions to recover the children and reunite them with their parents.