an Afghan refugee family sitting at The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) registration centre on the outskirts of Peshawar before their departure to their home country. PHOTO: AFP
As nearly 31,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of 2015, Afghan Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Said Hussain Alimi Balkhi has been quoted by his country’s media as saying he is soon to visit to discuss the crackdown and deportation of refugees. An Afghan source in Islamabad confirmed the minister’s visit, but added dates were yet to be finalised.
After the massacre of schoolchildren and staff members in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, many Afghans were rounded up, arrested or sent back as part of extended national security measures.
While at first the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government claimed it would send back all Afghans, later it emerged the diktat applied to unregistered refugees. After the dragnet arrests, many Afghan citizens, including seminary students, have chosen to leave on their own terms. Since then, those families which have been here for several generations and have made investments in the country have also left, though not without extreme hesitation.
On Saturday, Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Janan Mosazai visited Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. During the meeting, the thorny issue of Afghan refugees came up for discussion.
“The Afghan Ambassador stressed the plight of Afghan refugees needed more concerted efforts from the K-P government,” a PTI statement said. “He requested for a softer attitude from law-enforcing authorities towards Afghan refugees.”
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) mission chief in Kabul, Richard Danziger, told AFP that of the 30,599 Afghans who left Pakistan since January, 1,817 were deported while the rest left of their own accord.
“The figure, which eclipses the 25,000 Afghans who returned from Pakistan over the entire year in 2014, was a result of the breakdown in relationships between the migrants and their host communities following the Peshawar attack,” Danziger added.
‘Give us time’
During a media briefing in Kabul, Balkhi said nearly 300 Afghan families were crossing the Torkham border on a daily basis. He added the large-scale expulsion was “against Pakistan’s own policy of helping shelter Afghans.”
“I request Pakistani authorities to show patience so we can make arrangements for their shelter and aid,” the minister was quoted as saying.
“Roughly 94% of Afghans returning in recent weeks did so spontaneously, while the rest were deported,” an IOM statement posted online on Saturday read. Pakistan still hosts nearly three million Afghan and about half of them are undocumented, said the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Pakistani officials. Registered Afghans were issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards that allowed them to stay in Pakistan till December 31, 2015.
The Afghan refugees minister said in his visit, he would urge Pakistani authorities to give enough time so necessary arrangements could be made for the refugees.
“We have not taken any steps to accommodate those returning,” the minister said. “The cabinet will meet on Monday to chalk out a policy; an emergency assistance programme that will include food, cash and other arrangements to send them to their respective areas,” Balkhi said.
‘Illegal aliens’
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam has said the country saw the unregistered Afghan refugees as “illegal aliens”.
In her weekly briefing on Friday, she said, “Their situation makes them vulnerable to exploitation by terrorists. Naturally, these matters are discussed with the Afghan Government and we do not think that this issue is going to create any friction [between the two countries].”
Alleged mistreatment
Afghan refugees in Peshawar complained the police mistreated even those with PoR cards.
“They (Pakistani authorities) announced that they would deport unregistered Afghans, but the police in Peshawar harass and even detain those with cards,” Khalid Ahmed, a refugee, said.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 9th, 2015.
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