Illegal aliens: 2 govt agencies struggle to net Karachi’s ‘namaloom afraad’
Karachi commissioner tries to get NADRA and NARA on the same page.
Karachi commissioner tries to get NADRA and NARA on the same page.
KARACHI:
For one official, the most powerful people in Karachi are the ‘namaloom afraad’ or unidentified assailants — but he is talking about two million illegal aliens living in what he says are 102 katchi abadis.
“You kill a criminal when you have his information,” says Syed Nayab Hasan Zaidi, the deputy director of the awkwardly named National Alien Registration Authority (NARA). If someone knows you have their fingerprints on a database that is the strongest deterrence for crime.
Globally, governments are grappling with illegal immigrants. The debate on how to handle their status elicits strong emotions. Zaidi admits his words may sound harsh (“Pakistan isn’t an Edhi centre.”) but to many others he makes a compelling argument to use biometric registration to deter crime. The Supreme Court falls in this camp. While hearing the Karachi law and order case it has prodded the Sindh and federal governments to do something about criminals, many of whom it believes are illegal immigrants.
Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui has been coordinating between government agencies and at the top of its agenda is linking NARA and the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA). On Wednesday, NARA, NADRA, the deputy commissioners and police met to discuss progress.
Deputy commissioner West Dr Saifur Rahman got a pat on the back for reporting that they had registered 39 illegal aliens. District Central’s Ghanwar Ali Laghari got a “good” from the commissioner for reporting 183.
District Malir said it had no aliens.
“Are you sure,” asked the commissioner.
District South said it had no numbers to report as well.
“I do not believe there are no illegal aliens in South,” declared the commissioner. Later, he said, “People will keep coming. But the agency [NARA] needs to be there. We must have data from South, East, Malir and Orangi.”
Part of the problem, however, is that NARA has barely Rs10 million to work with and needs much more to get back on track. Ideally it needs to be revamped entirely but it urgently needs funding to fix its biometrics software that crashed and buy additional computers. Its isolated offices in Kandawalla building off MA Jinnah Road are spacious but deserted. Zaidi is the only senior official doing the work for all of Pakistan as this is the federal agency’s headquarters. For the longest time, NARA was running without a chief. Sindh FIA director Najaf Mirza was only recently given the additional task of running it.
But most importantly, Zaidi says the agency doesn’t have the power to deal with people who it discovers are illegal aliens, even though it knows where they are in Karachi because of intelligence gathering. (According to NARA, in 2009, Keamari Town had 0.6 million illegal Bangladeshis and 50,000 Burmese people). There are “potential threats” from the thousands of unregistered people from certain African countries and post-Soviet states, for example. Similarly problematic are the foreigners at religious institutions in Karachi.
Illegal aliens for NARA mean unregistered Iranians, people from Sudan, Tajikistan. The number of registered ‘aliens’ is a fraction. (There is even one Australian man who lives in Jumma Goth). NARA is mandated to but does not deal with Afghan ‘refugees’ as the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) is handling those cases. But, no new registrations are taking place and registered Afghans can stay till end-2015. This is still problematic, noted the commissioner, as the still-unregistered Afghans of Karachi can’t be touched by NARA and CAR isn’t working on them. This means many people are falling through the cracks.
Raids brought on complaints of harassment as people with papers were taken in. The commissioner and the focal team thus decided that it was best a NARA representative go along to verify the paperwork. They agreed that the FIA, coast guard and the marine security should be at part of the group.
Ironically it was the police officer at the table who stressed that not all illegal immigrants were behind crime in Karachi despite popular misconceptions. “There is a difference between them [the aliens] and criminals,” said DIG Administration Farhat Junejo.
It was clear to the officials attending the meeting that illegal immigrants are not going to come forward. Registering them is a seemingly insurmountable task. Raids are politically dangerous. (In 2007 a Bengali Action Committee organised rallies in Karachi, announced plans to back one political party and put its weight behind the demand for CNICs). Plus, in a city of 23 million people how can they even begin to cover the ground? But let’s say everyone is registered; what would happen to them? As NARA’s Zaidi puts it: “You can’t just pile them into a rickshaw and send them off or dump them into the sea.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2013.
For one official, the most powerful people in Karachi are the ‘namaloom afraad’ or unidentified assailants — but he is talking about two million illegal aliens living in what he says are 102 katchi abadis.
“You kill a criminal when you have his information,” says Syed Nayab Hasan Zaidi, the deputy director of the awkwardly named National Alien Registration Authority (NARA). If someone knows you have their fingerprints on a database that is the strongest deterrence for crime.
Globally, governments are grappling with illegal immigrants. The debate on how to handle their status elicits strong emotions. Zaidi admits his words may sound harsh (“Pakistan isn’t an Edhi centre.”) but to many others he makes a compelling argument to use biometric registration to deter crime. The Supreme Court falls in this camp. While hearing the Karachi law and order case it has prodded the Sindh and federal governments to do something about criminals, many of whom it believes are illegal immigrants.
Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui has been coordinating between government agencies and at the top of its agenda is linking NARA and the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA). On Wednesday, NARA, NADRA, the deputy commissioners and police met to discuss progress.
Deputy commissioner West Dr Saifur Rahman got a pat on the back for reporting that they had registered 39 illegal aliens. District Central’s Ghanwar Ali Laghari got a “good” from the commissioner for reporting 183.
District Malir said it had no aliens.
“Are you sure,” asked the commissioner.
District South said it had no numbers to report as well.
“I do not believe there are no illegal aliens in South,” declared the commissioner. Later, he said, “People will keep coming. But the agency [NARA] needs to be there. We must have data from South, East, Malir and Orangi.”
Part of the problem, however, is that NARA has barely Rs10 million to work with and needs much more to get back on track. Ideally it needs to be revamped entirely but it urgently needs funding to fix its biometrics software that crashed and buy additional computers. Its isolated offices in Kandawalla building off MA Jinnah Road are spacious but deserted. Zaidi is the only senior official doing the work for all of Pakistan as this is the federal agency’s headquarters. For the longest time, NARA was running without a chief. Sindh FIA director Najaf Mirza was only recently given the additional task of running it.
But most importantly, Zaidi says the agency doesn’t have the power to deal with people who it discovers are illegal aliens, even though it knows where they are in Karachi because of intelligence gathering. (According to NARA, in 2009, Keamari Town had 0.6 million illegal Bangladeshis and 50,000 Burmese people). There are “potential threats” from the thousands of unregistered people from certain African countries and post-Soviet states, for example. Similarly problematic are the foreigners at religious institutions in Karachi.
Illegal aliens for NARA mean unregistered Iranians, people from Sudan, Tajikistan. The number of registered ‘aliens’ is a fraction. (There is even one Australian man who lives in Jumma Goth). NARA is mandated to but does not deal with Afghan ‘refugees’ as the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) is handling those cases. But, no new registrations are taking place and registered Afghans can stay till end-2015. This is still problematic, noted the commissioner, as the still-unregistered Afghans of Karachi can’t be touched by NARA and CAR isn’t working on them. This means many people are falling through the cracks.
Raids brought on complaints of harassment as people with papers were taken in. The commissioner and the focal team thus decided that it was best a NARA representative go along to verify the paperwork. They agreed that the FIA, coast guard and the marine security should be at part of the group.
Ironically it was the police officer at the table who stressed that not all illegal immigrants were behind crime in Karachi despite popular misconceptions. “There is a difference between them [the aliens] and criminals,” said DIG Administration Farhat Junejo.
It was clear to the officials attending the meeting that illegal immigrants are not going to come forward. Registering them is a seemingly insurmountable task. Raids are politically dangerous. (In 2007 a Bengali Action Committee organised rallies in Karachi, announced plans to back one political party and put its weight behind the demand for CNICs). Plus, in a city of 23 million people how can they even begin to cover the ground? But let’s say everyone is registered; what would happen to them? As NARA’s Zaidi puts it: “You can’t just pile them into a rickshaw and send them off or dump them into the sea.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2013.