Afghan refugees packing their belongings at Mundi camp, Shabqadar. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Amid uncertainty
Zargun Shah, a teenager who works with his father in Rawalpindi, told The Express Tribune his family shifted from Munda camp in Shabqadar. He was there to collect the remainder of their belongings from a camp made by his parent nearly 30 years ago when they came to Pakistan as refugees.
According to Shah, most of the refugees originally belong to Kabul.
“However, on returning to Afghanistan, we may be treated as refugees there too, as they do not have homes there,” he said.
Muhammad Amin, a 25-year-old trader told The Express Tribune he was born at the camp and had never seen his family home in Afghanistan.
He added the order to vacate residential areas in Shabqadar is sudden and quite difficult to comply with as his family has a business and a home here in Pakistan, while no prospects await them in Afghanistan.
Haji Gul Afghan, a 50-year-old refugee, said he was a teenager when his family came to Pakistan.
“Our family has worked hard since then to build a home in the camp,” he said. “Now, we are being asked to return to Afghanistan.”
The 50-year-old said his family does not have enough money to transport their belongings back to Kabul where they have no home and land is expensive.
“This brings back memories of 1979 when my family had initially come to Pakistan,” he said.
The Afghan refugees are dissatisfied with the order.
Many of the families who have repatriated to Afghanistan in the past 24 hours have valid documents. However, they are afraid of being forcibly expelled from the country, even though UNHCR representatives visited the camp and assured residents the operation was not against registered Afghan refugees.
Ashfaq Khan, a police official told The Express Tribune the forces have extended the date for evacuation to July 16 (today) after which the police will follow the next order given to them.
He said it is premature to determine what action will be taken against unregistered Afghan refugees in the area after the given deadline for evacuation expires.
Heading home
In the wake of the government’s decision to take action against those Afghan nationals illegally residing in the country, officials at Pak Afghan border Torkham told The Express Tribune on Friday, 556 individuals from 113 families left the country for onward journey towards Afghanistan till 4:30pm.
They included some of the registered families but officials said a majority of those returned to Afghanistan are unregistered Afghan families.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2016.
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