pakistani342
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More on Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Article here, excerpts below:
For 35 years, Hoji Karim had eked out a living in the mountainous region of Pakistani Kashmir. Having fled the war in his native Afghanistan, the elderly man thought that, across the border, in the valleys of the lower Himalayas, he had finally found somewhere safe.
But two months ago that all changed.
"The Pakistani police came to our house and told us to leave," he said. "They threw all our things onto the street."
...
Since the beginning of this year over 55,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan – more than twice as much as in the whole of the 2014.
...
The rate of spontaneous returns of undocumented Afghans increased from an average of 59 a day in 2014 to 651 in the 2015. An IOM official said that many of the unregistered Afghan returnees reported that they had left Pakistan to escape harassment following the Peshawar attack.
...
Afghanistan's minister for refugees and repatriations, Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi, has appealed to his Pakistani counterparts to stop the forced evictions. He travelled to Pakistan and announced on March 14 that an agreement had been reached, with which Pakistan would stop deportations and instead register the undocumented Afghans in Pakistan.
...
Last week Nursada, a vegetable seller, was one of them – arriving from Peshawar after 30 years living there.
"Why did I leave? The Pakistani police came to my house and told me to go" he said, proving that the agreement has done little to change the situation.
"Before, I sold vegetables from my cart in the bazaar of Peshawar.
"But now no one is doing business with Afghans."
For 35 years, Hoji Karim had eked out a living in the mountainous region of Pakistani Kashmir. Having fled the war in his native Afghanistan, the elderly man thought that, across the border, in the valleys of the lower Himalayas, he had finally found somewhere safe.
But two months ago that all changed.
"The Pakistani police came to our house and told us to leave," he said. "They threw all our things onto the street."
...
Since the beginning of this year over 55,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan – more than twice as much as in the whole of the 2014.
...
The rate of spontaneous returns of undocumented Afghans increased from an average of 59 a day in 2014 to 651 in the 2015. An IOM official said that many of the unregistered Afghan returnees reported that they had left Pakistan to escape harassment following the Peshawar attack.
...
Afghanistan's minister for refugees and repatriations, Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi, has appealed to his Pakistani counterparts to stop the forced evictions. He travelled to Pakistan and announced on March 14 that an agreement had been reached, with which Pakistan would stop deportations and instead register the undocumented Afghans in Pakistan.
...
Last week Nursada, a vegetable seller, was one of them – arriving from Peshawar after 30 years living there.
"Why did I leave? The Pakistani police came to my house and told me to go" he said, proving that the agreement has done little to change the situation.
"Before, I sold vegetables from my cart in the bazaar of Peshawar.
"But now no one is doing business with Afghans."
