PESHAWAR, April 4: About 464 staffers of the Afghan Commissionerate, working in the UNHCR-funded projects, have complained that they are getting low salaries as compared to their colleagues working in government sector.

In a press release issued here on Wednesday, the employees said that they were facing great economic problems owing to their low salaries.

The press release said that after massive influx of refugees some three decades ago, different projects in health, education, social welfare and care and maintenance sectors were introduced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to look after the needs of Afghan refugees.

Those projects were exclusively funded by the UN refugees agency and were still dependent on the UN body. Presently, they said, 464 employees were working in all those projects.

They said that staffers working in the UNHCR offices were getting very attractive remunerations because their emoluments were increased regularly on the generally accepted principles, recognised all over the world.

Even the government employees were getting regular raise in their salaries owing to the rising inflation and high cost of living.

On the other hand, the staffers working in the UNHCR-funded projects were paid extremely low salaries which were about 200 per cent lower than their equivalent counterparts in the government sector.

The press release said that it was clear violation of the human rights as the staffers, who spent long time in the project, were unable to get other jobs due to age limitations.

It said that employees of those projects had rendered meritorious services in the most non-hospitable areas of the province stretching from Chitral in the north to Waziristan in the south and were still performing duties in most hard districts of the province.

Owing to the persistent demands by the employees of the projects for the enhancement of salaries, a study was conducted that concluded that the salaries of the Afghan refugees projects staff had to be raised to about 200 per cent to bring them at par with their colleagues working elsewhere in different sectors.