Under wandering stars

Most Afghan refugees are unlikely to ever return to their homeland

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.