Stop 'scapegoating' Afghan refugees for Taliban atrocities in Peshawar: HRW urges govt

Says since Dec 16, there have been many reports of harassment and intimidation against country’s Afghan population

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Pakistan to stop scapegoating Afghans for the Taliban’s atrocities in Peshawar, while requesting the government to order local authorities to stop pressuring registered refugees to return to Afghanistan.

“It is inhumane, not to mention unlawful, to return Afghans to places they may face harm and not protect them from harassment and abuse,” the HRW said in a statement issued on Sunday.

Read: The question of Afghan refugees

The HRW further added, “The Pakistan government has an obligation to protect all Afghans in the country, including those not registered as refugees, from harassment and other abuses.”

Thousands of Afghans under threats of arrest and growing hostility towards them have flocked out of Pakistan back home, leaving behind boarded-up shops, houses and restaurants.

Within hours of the December 16 attack on a school in Peshawar in which more than 150 people were killed, officials pointed the finger at Afghanistan and vowed to crack down on illegal immigrants whom they say furnish a cover for militants.

Read: Our darkest hour

“Pakistani officials should not be scapegoating Afghans because of the Taliban’s atrocities in Peshawar,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Read: Afghans ordered out of Pakistan as 'diversion' in militant fight

In December 2014, the government specifically assured Afghan refugees that the Peshawar attack would not prompt any official reprisals. The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions pledged that the government would “maintain its traditional hospitality” toward Afghan refugees.

“Despite these assurances, since December 16 there have been numerous reports of government and public harassment and intimidation against the country’s Afghan population,” the statement read.

Read: Mistreatment of Afghan refugees

Those reports include accounts that police have threatened Afghans with arrest unless they leave the country immediately.

“Pakistan’s government is tarnishing the country’s well-deserved reputation for hospitality toward refugees by tolerating the punitive and potentially unlawful coercive repatriation of Afghan refugees,” Kine said.

“The government needs to defend the rights of its Afghan population and ensure that local authorities aren’t carrying out vindictive reprisals for an atrocity the Afghan refugees bear no responsibility for.”