Pakistanis have criticised Donald Trump for his remarks against Muslims and refugees
PESHAWAR: Zaheer wears a torn, grease-ridden shirt to the workshop where he has toiled from 8am to 8pm for the past 18 years. Two of his young sons have it better selling fruit. Initially, his workforce included three sons, but one was arrested for possessing an infinitesimal amount of hashish and sentenced to 10 years for crimes not limited to possession of drugs.
Zaheer’s family is like any other Pakistani family — hardworking and inadequately compensated — but are considered lesser citizens. Zaheer is not a Pakistani — he is an Afghan refugee whose forebears migrated to Pakistan during the Soviet invasion. Refugees like Zaheer roughly make Rs240,000 annually, which supports large families. The bulk of this money will never leave Pakistan; it will be used to buy taxed goods, avail services and repay debts. Today, however, money takes a back seat. Two-and-a-half million Afghan refugees face repatriation to an Afghanistan they don’t know and have never been to. They face displacement from the country they were born in, just like their fathers.
The Pakistani government is finally on the brink of initiating one of the greatest forced exoduses of our time. While the refugees dress, speak and eat like Pakistanis with Afghanistan a forgotten story to these people, the Pakistani government, backed by an unfortunately large number of citizens, insists they prepare for repatriation — by hook or by crook, evident through the forced evictions that have already begun in Punjab. The great loss of dignity, property and a place to call home will be a major blow to the refugees. Once again, people will be uprooted from their homes, forced to live in tents, reduced to begging and surviving on alms. It is shameful that Pakistan’s Muslim majority is just not willing to extend a helping hand to their Muslim brethren. Pakistan should ensure that its foreign policy towards Afghanistan does not dictate its attitude towards helpless refugees.
Pakistanis have criticised Donald Trump for his remarks against Muslims and refugees. Yet, there is a similar tragedy at our doorstep, one which is both Muslim and refugee. It has long been overdue, but we still have time to help integrate Afghan refugees into our societies as citizens.
Muhammad Omer Jan
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2016.
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