Afghan refugees & the perception problem

Refugees have a perception problem. In marketing parlance, you are said to have a perception problem when your product gains a negative perception in the minds of the consumer. In the case of refugees, this unfortunate phenomenon is so prevalent that the term ‘refugee’ has come to be associated with criminality, a drain on local resources and most recently, terrorism. Not surprisingly, this has not boded well for refugees, as much state-led policy and the extent and nature of assistance they are provided with has predicated upon this perception.

In Pakistan, the claim that refugees are criminally inclined is a theme many of us have heard waxed eloquent by people of all stripes. Worryingly, and despite any statistical support for such assertions, this negative perception extends beyond the layperson to government cadres in charge of ensuring the wellbeing of these people. The fact that Pakistan continues not to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention despite having one of the most protracted refugee situations in the world is telling of this attitude.

This was not always the case; in fact, the initial influx of refugees that came in during the first Afghan war was welcomed with open arms by the state. The language of the official declarations allowing them refugee status reflected this sentiment by referring to the refugees as our “Afghan brothers”. Grandiose speeches making comparisons between the Afghans and their hosts and the Muhajireen-e-Makkah and the people of Madina were made. At the time, Pakistan was deeply embroiled in this conflict, terming it a “holy war” and its coffers were flush with Afghan aid. As the conflict dwindled and American interest and aid dried up, so did the brotherly goodwill towards the refugees. Harassment by state functionaries, such as by the police, became commonplace and many Afghans, being unable to return to their war-torn country, were now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Not surprisingly, after the fall of the Taliban regime, large numbers chose to return to Afghanistan.

For a long time, Pakistan continued without any laws for national recognition of refugee status, leaving refugees vulnerable to harassment and at the mercy of local authorities. Finally in 2006, a registration exercise was undertaken in collaboration with the UNHCR where those who came forward to be registered were given Proof of Registration (POR) cards, allowing them a formal legal status till the expiration of their POR. Unfortunately many did not participate in this exercise, either for the fear of being forcibly returned, or due to inability to get registered for logistical reasons or for arriving in the country after the registration exercise had ended. Either way, those who did not register automatically became illegal aliens despite there being legitimacy of their refugee claims, creating a further tier of persons vulnerable to harassment.

The post-9/11 era saw refugee treatment deteriorate even further with crackdowns and forced evictions of Afghans, and accusations against them of harbouring terrorist elements even when there was no evidence. This situation of state harassment and abuse escalated to new heights after the attack on APS, Peshawar. This increase in mistreatment by the state forms the subject of a report recently released by Human Rights Watch, which consolidates the experiences of refugees in Pakistan, primarily focusing on the mistreatment by the police of even those who hold POR cards. The report includes numerous first-person accounts of refugees returning to unsafe situations in Afghanistan out of fear of physical harm and constant harassment in Pakistan, something that directly contradicts the principles of ‘voluntary return’ that Pakistan has time and again committed itself to. A common complaint in these accounts is the demand for bribes by local authorities, which most refugees who live in abject poverty cannot meet.

This is a dark chapter in Pakistan’s human rights record. In Punjab, where there is an ethnic divide between the locals and the Pakhtun Afghans, the ‘otherisation’ of the refugees is complete and they are routinely displaced and hauled away by the police. With such occurrences now extending to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the largest refugee-hosting province, the space for refuge is dwindling. As conflicts spark across the globe and the number of refugees grows by the hour, the ‘perception problem’ that equates refugees with terrorism, ignoring that they are victims of the same, creates a cruel catch-22 situation where they are blamed for being the very evil they are attempting to escape. As this problem grows, Pakistan and indeed the world must rethink the role of the nation-state and its responsibility towards those who no longer have a place to call home.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th,  2015.

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