Pakistan mulls suspending refugee repatriation

Officials on both sides warn uninterrupted repatriation may result in loss of lives

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is considering a UN refugee agency’s proposal to temporarily suspend the ongoing repatriation of Afghan refugees, the chief commissioner of Afghan refugees said.



“Apart from UNHCR, a few mainstream political parties have also asked the federal government to put off the repatriation process for three months,” Dr Imran Zaid said.

Although the federal government has taken no decision in this regard, but Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat Islami (JI), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) called for suspending the refugee repatriation between December 1 this year and February 28 next year.

Dr Zaib told The Express Tribune that if the demands were met, the last date for the repatriation, March 31 next year, would also be extended by at least three months.



A decision in this regard would be taken by the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) in consultation with the Afghan government and the UNHCR.

UNHCR officials cited financial constraints for the proposal.

Dr Zaib said that UNHCR had asked donors to arrange $200 million for the refugee operation in 2017. Harsh winter temperatures in both Pakistan and Afghanistan was another reason for the call for the delay. Officials on both sides of the border warned that uninterrupted repatriation would result in loss of human lives.

“Taking past experiences as a yardstick, migration (of refugees) from Pakistan to Afghanistan between November and March trickled down to just a few thousand persons,” an official told The Express Tribune.

The official reminded that over 500,000 Afghan refugees had already returned to their homeland during the ongoing repatriation process.

Meanwhile, QWP Chairman Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao claimed that Pakistan would be forced to suspend the repatriation of Afghan refugees in November because of financial constraints.



“The operation will be suspended for at least three months for a variety of reasons,” he told The Express Tribune. The federal cabinet, he said, would soon take a decision on the issue.

He agreed that he and leaders of a few political parties had asked the federal government to postpone the repatriation in the interest of Pakistan-Afghanistan ties.

The chief commissioner believes that an administrative decision will be sufficient for delaying the process.

“I don’t think that the matter requires an approval of the federal cabinet,” Dr Zaib concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2016.