There are around 1.56 million registered Afghan refugees in the country, out of which one million reside in K-P. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
Fearing uncertainty in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US forces in 2014, the government has formulated a draft policy which calls for the voluntary repatriation of refugees and stringent border management measures.
The National Policy on Management and Repatriation of Afghan Refugees -- which has been shared with both Kabul and UNHCR -- comes amidst confusion surrounding emerging political developments as the US completes its planned withdrawal from neighbouring Afghanistan.
According to documents available with The Express Tribune, the cabinet in its July 25 meeting was informed that the primary policy guiding Islamabad on Afghan refugees expired in 2012 but that the then prime minister extended the validity of the Proof Registration Cards and Tripartite Agreement till June 30, 2013.
Following the decision, a cabinet sub-committee was constituted to recommend specific strategies to deal with the protracted issue of Afghan refugees.
After consultations between stakeholders, the States and Frontier Division formulated a draft National Policy for Afghan Refugees. This policy was discussed in Kabul on June 28 in a meeting between the Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Afghanistan, Minister for SAFRON Pakistan and UNHCR Afghanistan/Pakistan.
The repatriation of Afghan refugees is guided by the Tripartite Agreement initially signed by Islamabad, Kabul and the UNGCR in 2003 and later extended up to December 31, 2012. Voluntarism and gradualism were the guiding principles embedded in the agreement for sustainable repatriation. Since 2002, more than 3.8 million Afghan refugees have been repatriated to their home country under this agreement.
The proposed policy calls for extending the Proof Registration Cards and Tripartite Agreement till December 31, 2015 and emphasises voluntary repatriation as the most preferred solution, saying local integration is not an option.
Stressing the need for developing diplomatic and political strategies to address this key issue, the policy seeks to adopt quarterly targets for repatriation between Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR.
More significantly, equal importance has been given to ensuring pull factors in Afghanistan exist for refugees and seeks to launch a mass information campaign meant to encourage refugees to go back to their home country or seek third country resettlement.
A number of measures to deal with and manage Afghan refugees in Pakistan have also been recommended, including the proposed establishment of federal and provincial bodies for monitoring, supervision and implementation of the policy.
Given the importance of ensuring adequate policy measures are put in place to deal with this critical issue of refugees, the cabinet has formed a ministerial level committee, with the minister for States and Frontier Regions as convener, to finalise the draft policy.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2013.
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Records available with the police reveal Afghan refugees who have been living in Pakistan for the past three decades are involved in felonies like cattle theft, burglaries, robberies, car thefts, kidnapping for ransom, drugs and arms smuggling.
If they (Afghan Refguees) are not repatriated to Afghanistan, where law and order has improved considerably, then their movement should be restricted to their camps and monitored properly.
@American Pashtun: If you believe what you say, then all the more reason to convince America and other Western countries to take in more well assimilating refugees from Afghanistan. Maybe these same successful refugees can convince American and Canadian authorities to do away with the points based immigration program whereby skilled immigrants with visas come to settle in North America and instead just allow asylum seekers without any vetting since they are such a "succesful demographic" in North America ! Regardless of whether you want to ignore the reality, all I am saying is that Pakistan should not be left to shoulder the burden of Afghani refugees but the richer Western countries can handle more asylum seekers.
@Maria:
I sense a lot of animosity of well assimilated western Afghans. Seeing the difference in standards of living and ability to assimilate between Afghans and Pakistani's in the West, I can see why that would be the case. Afghans are an extremely successful Western demographic. You've posted you're nonsense on here before. Animosity never helped anyone.
@Maria A country founded for the Subcontinent Muslims turning its back on fellow Muslims would be one way of looking at it. But countries operate as nation states these days and whats best for Pakistan may be to not let in Afghan refugees. As an afghan myself and someone aware of the security situation in Pakistan I think very few Afghans will consider moving to Pakistan before going through all other options, namely former Soviet countries and Iran. For example Uzbeks have Turkey and Uzbekistan as options. Shia Hazaras have Iran, you get the point. Equating USA and Mexico with Pakistan and Afghanistan is simply flawed. I ask what is the equivalent of the American dream that an Afghan taking refuge in Pakistan could aspire to? I think what John Nash says in the movie "A beautiful mind" is quite applicable here. Pakistan and Afghanistan should not only do what is best for each of them alone, but what is best for each and the two together.
@Pashtunyar: It wasn't Pakistan that created the mess in Afghanistan. Would the Afghans have preferred to remain occupied by the Soviet Union? It was Pakistan that helped free them from foreign occupation, and this is the thanks we get. If the Afghans can't live with themselves, that is not Pakistan's problem.
No European, American, Australasian, or other well to do country has absorbed near the numbers of Afghan refugees Pakistan has, so Pakistan does not need lessons in magnanimity.
Besides, Afghans are not integrated in Pakistani society at all, they have no loyalty to Pakistan, and are the major cause of crime and terrorism in Pakistan.
The Afghans are welcome to their own country, they should go back and stay there. I agree with Maria, specifically Pakistan should mine and fence the border with Pakistan.
@Pashtunyar: Pakistani officials may or may not have made a mistake by helping to remove the Soviets from the region but the whole Western World was involved. Not only did Pakistan help defeat the Soviets when most Afghanis were just busy trying to go abroad to become asylum seekers but Pakistan was left alone to clean up the mess. By the way, you need to understand that most Pakistanis live overseas as legal immigrants on visas after an interview at a Western embassy. They tend to work overseas, are integrated in society and pay taxes like other citizens. The difference is that asylum seekers like those from Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Iraq mostly smuggle themselves abroad with no papers and beg for asylum on the basis of fear of being killed or persecuted. They then have a court case to validate their refugee claim and most of these people live on social assistance or state khayrat after their claims are accepted. That's why the Afghani refugees should be accepted abroad. The Western countries have resources to pay for Afghani asylum seekers who will live on welfare, Pakistan does not.
@Pashtunyar: That's not feasible :( We can't take care of our citizens and our already overpopulated, how will we take care of Afghans?
It doesn't matter if Punjabi's in Islamabad want to pretend they have a controlled border. It will never be the case.
@Maria: Instead of pushing the refugees back into Afghanistan to face en uncertain future, we should give them the option to stay in Pakistan! We should show the afghans the same magnanimity as the europeens/americans have been showing to pakistanis seeking greener pastures! And then we have a historical and moral obligation to help the refugees since pakistan helped create the mess in the 80's by helping the fanatical mujahideen nad lately the taliban! You also have to remember that most of the afghans in KPK are already well integrated in the society!
I am glad to hear that the officials in Pakistan are taking measures now to safeguard the borders against a new inflow of Afghani refugees which is no doubt coming after the Western forces leave. Not only does the border need to be mined or fenced, surveillance drones should be operated by Pakistan across the whole Afghanistan - Pakistan border to prevent the illegal movement of Afghanis into Pakistan. The USA has done the same to keep out illegal Mexicans. Pakistan has been housing the Afghani refugees for far too long and it is a burden on Pakistan. The limited aid given by the United Nations is nothing compared to the billions of dollars of dames incurred by Pakistan for housing Afghani refugees. All existing refugees should be sent back to Afghanistan and the Western nations should be encouraged to take more Afghani asylum seekers so they can live on Western social assistance instead of taking resources away from Pakistanis.