pakistani342
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Very interesting on what is going -- article here, excerpts below:
...
Said is among at least 1.5 million documented refugees who are caught in the middle of a wider spat involving Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. that escalated after an American drone killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour last month. Pakistan is threatening to deport all of the refugees by the end of June, a move that risks leading to a humanitarian disaster in what would be one of the biggest forced repatriations in decades.
...
"Both sides are playing their cards," said Mansur Khan Mahsud, director of the FATA Research Centre in Islamabad. The mentality in Pakistan, he said, is that "if you are building pressure, I'll do the same to counter you."
...
Not so in Afghanistan. "There are no schools, no health facilities and no peace," Morad, a 53-year-old former soldier who goes by one name, said of his homeland. He has lived as a refugee in Pakistan since the 1980s.
...
"Afghanistan isn't now prepared to embrace a large influx of Afghan immigrants from neighboring nations given the security problems and lack of resources," Hafiz Ahmad Miakhel, an adviser to Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, said in an interview. The nation is working with Pakistan and Iran to resolve migrant-related issues, he said.
Ultimately any refugee crisis would be a problem for the U.S., which currently pays for about 75 percent of Afghanistan's military budget. A humanitarian disaster would distract vital resources from fighting the Taliban, whose resurgence has forced President Barack Obama to delay a planned troop withdrawal.
...
"I would not ask them to send them back," Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's former president, said of the refugees at a conference in London on Friday. Instead, Pakistan should give them support and jobs so they can "send money back to Afghanistan," he said, adding that 99.9 percent of people crossing the borders aren't extremists.
...
Said is among at least 1.5 million documented refugees who are caught in the middle of a wider spat involving Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. that escalated after an American drone killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour last month. Pakistan is threatening to deport all of the refugees by the end of June, a move that risks leading to a humanitarian disaster in what would be one of the biggest forced repatriations in decades.
...
"Both sides are playing their cards," said Mansur Khan Mahsud, director of the FATA Research Centre in Islamabad. The mentality in Pakistan, he said, is that "if you are building pressure, I'll do the same to counter you."
...
Not so in Afghanistan. "There are no schools, no health facilities and no peace," Morad, a 53-year-old former soldier who goes by one name, said of his homeland. He has lived as a refugee in Pakistan since the 1980s.
...
"Afghanistan isn't now prepared to embrace a large influx of Afghan immigrants from neighboring nations given the security problems and lack of resources," Hafiz Ahmad Miakhel, an adviser to Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, said in an interview. The nation is working with Pakistan and Iran to resolve migrant-related issues, he said.
Ultimately any refugee crisis would be a problem for the U.S., which currently pays for about 75 percent of Afghanistan's military budget. A humanitarian disaster would distract vital resources from fighting the Taliban, whose resurgence has forced President Barack Obama to delay a planned troop withdrawal.
...
"I would not ask them to send them back," Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's former president, said of the refugees at a conference in London on Friday. Instead, Pakistan should give them support and jobs so they can "send money back to Afghanistan," he said, adding that 99.9 percent of people crossing the borders aren't extremists.
What the.... who the hell he think he is? 
