The Afghan refugee crisis

Afghan refugees in Pakistan constitute the largest and most prolonged refugee population under UNHCR’s directive. Until June this year, Afghans could enter Pakistan without a visa, though Pakistanis required a visa to enter Afghanistan. After a recent mandate was issued to return refugees to their home-country, Pakistan has extended the deadline for a third time till March 2016.

By December 2015, Germany hosted around 360,000 Syrian refugees. This year, Germany has pledged an additional 39,987 places for Syrian refugees which makes up about 54 per cent of the EU total. The refugee crisis has caused deep political divisions in the EU and was one of the key reasons for Britain’s exit from the Union. Not all members of the Union are ready to accept their share of the migration burden especially following the terrorist attacks in France and sexual assaults on German women. Even before the refugee crisis, the EU ordered 168,000 illegal Pakistani migrants to leave between 2008 and 2014.

From a total of 5 million Syrian refugees, the US has accepted 10,000 refugees, mostly women and children. Their plans to raise that number to 110,000 in 2017 appear to have little chance at coming to fruition with the election of either of the leading presidential candidates. Trump has stated that no Muslims will be allowed in and Hillary said that the US should accept 65,000 refugees.

Pakistan has hosted approximately three million Afghan refugees since 1979. The US had allocated $950 million for assisting Afghan refugees and returnees. However, according to a recent report by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, most of that money has been severely mismanaged and lost to corruption. The report specifically mentions a 2013 assessment of a land distribution programme run by the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, which found that it was “afflicted by institutional corruption”. Similarly, a report by Amnesty International stated that Afghanistan had failed to implement a 2014 national policy to provide basic living standards for IDPs. The UNCHR is paying a repatriation grant of $400 to each refugee but that has put a strain on its budget and it has requested an additional $73 million to get through the year. This lack of long-term plans to resettle the refugees indicates that the international community and the Afghan government were content to perpetuate their encampment in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, international aid to Afghanistan has slashed to half of its peak before the withdrawal of US troops. International priorities have shifted elsewhere, yet the situation in Afghanistan is more dire than ever. The conflict persists, with no end in sight, and the Afghan refugees remain in desperate need. Superpowers have used Afghanistan as their playground for decades and somehow Pakistan has become solely responsible for managing the world’s largest refugee population. Instead of holding Pakistan to an unattainable standard, the nations who helped create this unparalleled crisis must acknowledge their complicity and pledge significant funds and manpower towards safely resolving the situation. The UN commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said it best when he stated that “the issue of Afghan displacement has been overlooked,” and that the refugee crisis in Europe “is a tragedy but also an eye-opener: if you don’t solve problems which appear to be far away from you, these problems will come to you”.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2016.

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