Magazine

Under wandering stars

Most Afghan refugees are unlikely to ever return to their homeland

MUHAMMAD IQBAL/photo Muhammad Iqbal photo Muhammad Iqbal October 04, 2015

An Afghan refugee vacates his temporary residence at Ghondai camp, Tehkal Payan. PHOTO : MUHAMMAD IQBAL

It took the body of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi to wash up on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea for the world to wake up to the plight of refugees. Pakistan is host to the largest number of refugees in the world, taking in millions of people fleeing the conflict in Afghanistan over three decades earlier. Pictured here is a man vacating his temporary residence and his children playing with whatever they can pick up from the ground at a refugee camp in Peshawar. Thousands like this family are living in overcrowded camps, waiting for the government to compensate them for waging a war on their doorstep.

Afghan refugee children playing in Ghondai camp in Tehkal Payan, Peshawar. PHOTO : MUHAMMAD IQBAL

Muhammad Iqbal is a Peshawar-based photographer for The Express Tribune.

He tweets @MuhmmadIqbal18

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, October 4^th, 2015.

COMMENTS (1)

sterry | 9 years ago | Reply Europe and Germany should come and take all these refugees to Europe where they have social welfare and free housing for them to live. Then these refugees won't be a burden any more for a developing country like Pakistan. It's sad that Arabs, Afghans and Somalis have to smuggle themselves into Europe to ask for asylum under dangerous conditions. Better for European countries to airlift these refugees directly from refugee camps in Middle East and Asia. Imagine the pressure lifted on Pak economy if millions of Afghan refugees went to Europe instead of just the ones who pay the human smugglers.

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