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The number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan who will return to their homeland this year is expected to be double the 2009 figure, but it's not only a longing for their native soil that is fuelling the Afghans' departure.
Many of the refugees say Pakistanis û officials and local folk alike have made it clear that they are unwelcome, and have increasingly made life here difficult for them.
Everything is being done by the government to harass the Afghan refugees, says Dost Mohammad, an acknowledged leader of Afghans who used to live at the Shamshalo refugee camp here in Peshawar, near the Pakistani border with Afghanistan. We are poor people and the international community should not leave us in a lurch.
Forty-four-year-old Jamila Bibi even says that she fears her children would
starve to death and that she would soon be reduced to begging for a living. I
had been working as a home servant (before), says Bibi. But now the local
communities are reluctant to offer jobs to Afghan women.
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had triggered a massive migration
of Afghans to Pakistan, which found itself a reluctant host to more than five
million Afghans at one point. Up until three years ago, there were 24 camps
providing shelter to the refugees, but these were shut down by the Pakistani
government after the withdrawal of support from the international
community.
United Nations data reveal that since 2002, more than 3.5 million Afghan
refugees in Pakistan have returned home. This year, 130,000 more are
expected to head for Afghanistan under the United Nations-facilitated
voluntary repatriation programme, or twice the number last year.
It is no secret that Pakistan, which is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N.
Convention on Refugees, is not keen on playing host to the refugees for too
long. The country, however, has a tripartite agreement with Afghanistan and
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to let registered
Afghan refugees to stay in the country until December 2012.
Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NDRA), with
financial and technical assistance from UNHCR, was able to register some two
million Afghan refugees in 2007.
According to the United Nations, Pakistan still has about 1.3 million
registered Afghan refugees. Most of them live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which
used to be called the North West Frontier Province, but there are also Afghan
refugees in Pakistan's urban centres.
A UNHCR spokesperson here in Peshawar says the refugees have already
been informed of the extension of their legal stay in Pakistan so long as they
possess registration cards.
Najamuddin Khan, a federal minister for the Frontier Regions, also told IPS:
We are not going to force them (to return home).
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain meanwhile
says that it is not true that Afghans are being maltreated. We have been
suffering due to the presence of Afghans, he says, but would not take any
action against those having valid documents to stay here.
By suffering, Hussain is apparently referring partly to the popular
perception that the Afghan refugees have been taking far too many jobs away
from the locals because the migrants ask for lower wages. Hussain, however,
also says, We would not allow the criminals to stay here.
We have statistics that (show) 45 percent of the crimes (as being)
committed by Afghans, says police officer Mohammed Rafiq. They do crimes
and run away to Afghanistan where they cannot be traced.
Crimes allegedly committed by Afghan refugees in Pakistan range from
robbery to murder.
Many refugees, though, feel like they are being punished even if they have
not done any crime.
They say that since the refugee camps were closed down in 2007, the
police have been constantly harassing them regarding their papers. Most
refugees have also been forced to live in makeshift huts and to take just
about any job they can find to be able to eat.
Rehmat Shat, for instance, says that the 55 dollars he earns monthly as a
night watchman for a local family is not enough to provide for his family. My
two children sell vegetables to complement my income, he says.
Mirza Mohammad's three daughters û Samia, 10, Rabia, eight, and Jaweria,
six û tag along whenever she makes her rounds of the neighbourhood at
sunrise to collect trash.
Some people give us cash and left-over bread and ice, says barefoot
Rabia. But others don't.
Yet despite the difficulties of refugee life in Pakistan, many Afghans here
say they would rather stay in this country for as long as they can. Says Shah:
We cannot go due to lawlessness, joblessness, poor education and health
facilities back home.
Jalawan Khan, a 35-year-old taxi driver, even asserts, The government
should take pity on us. He adds, We (came) here to escape successive years
of war, famine, and drought.
Some members of Khan's family, however, have gone back to Afghanistan.
In fact, Khan says he sends part of his earnings to his mother, who is now
living in their native Khost province in Afghanistan.
But he says it becoming harder and harder just to provide his wife and
children with at least two meals a day. My father ran a very good (carpet)
business in Kacha Garhi camp, says Khan. But now the situation is
extremely bad.
Still, he says, I am staying here anyway because I want to educate my son
here in Peshawar.
PAKISTAN: Afghans Find Their Welcome Running Out
Many of the refugees say Pakistanis û officials and local folk alike have made it clear that they are unwelcome, and have increasingly made life here difficult for them.
Everything is being done by the government to harass the Afghan refugees, says Dost Mohammad, an acknowledged leader of Afghans who used to live at the Shamshalo refugee camp here in Peshawar, near the Pakistani border with Afghanistan. We are poor people and the international community should not leave us in a lurch.
Forty-four-year-old Jamila Bibi even says that she fears her children would
starve to death and that she would soon be reduced to begging for a living. I
had been working as a home servant (before), says Bibi. But now the local
communities are reluctant to offer jobs to Afghan women.
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had triggered a massive migration
of Afghans to Pakistan, which found itself a reluctant host to more than five
million Afghans at one point. Up until three years ago, there were 24 camps
providing shelter to the refugees, but these were shut down by the Pakistani
government after the withdrawal of support from the international
community.
United Nations data reveal that since 2002, more than 3.5 million Afghan
refugees in Pakistan have returned home. This year, 130,000 more are
expected to head for Afghanistan under the United Nations-facilitated
voluntary repatriation programme, or twice the number last year.
It is no secret that Pakistan, which is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N.
Convention on Refugees, is not keen on playing host to the refugees for too
long. The country, however, has a tripartite agreement with Afghanistan and
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to let registered
Afghan refugees to stay in the country until December 2012.
Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NDRA), with
financial and technical assistance from UNHCR, was able to register some two
million Afghan refugees in 2007.
According to the United Nations, Pakistan still has about 1.3 million
registered Afghan refugees. Most of them live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which
used to be called the North West Frontier Province, but there are also Afghan
refugees in Pakistan's urban centres.
A UNHCR spokesperson here in Peshawar says the refugees have already
been informed of the extension of their legal stay in Pakistan so long as they
possess registration cards.
Najamuddin Khan, a federal minister for the Frontier Regions, also told IPS:
We are not going to force them (to return home).
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain meanwhile
says that it is not true that Afghans are being maltreated. We have been
suffering due to the presence of Afghans, he says, but would not take any
action against those having valid documents to stay here.
By suffering, Hussain is apparently referring partly to the popular
perception that the Afghan refugees have been taking far too many jobs away
from the locals because the migrants ask for lower wages. Hussain, however,
also says, We would not allow the criminals to stay here.
We have statistics that (show) 45 percent of the crimes (as being)
committed by Afghans, says police officer Mohammed Rafiq. They do crimes
and run away to Afghanistan where they cannot be traced.
Crimes allegedly committed by Afghan refugees in Pakistan range from
robbery to murder.
Many refugees, though, feel like they are being punished even if they have
not done any crime.
They say that since the refugee camps were closed down in 2007, the
police have been constantly harassing them regarding their papers. Most
refugees have also been forced to live in makeshift huts and to take just
about any job they can find to be able to eat.
Rehmat Shat, for instance, says that the 55 dollars he earns monthly as a
night watchman for a local family is not enough to provide for his family. My
two children sell vegetables to complement my income, he says.
Mirza Mohammad's three daughters û Samia, 10, Rabia, eight, and Jaweria,
six û tag along whenever she makes her rounds of the neighbourhood at
sunrise to collect trash.
Some people give us cash and left-over bread and ice, says barefoot
Rabia. But others don't.
Yet despite the difficulties of refugee life in Pakistan, many Afghans here
say they would rather stay in this country for as long as they can. Says Shah:
We cannot go due to lawlessness, joblessness, poor education and health
facilities back home.
Jalawan Khan, a 35-year-old taxi driver, even asserts, The government
should take pity on us. He adds, We (came) here to escape successive years
of war, famine, and drought.
Some members of Khan's family, however, have gone back to Afghanistan.
In fact, Khan says he sends part of his earnings to his mother, who is now
living in their native Khost province in Afghanistan.
But he says it becoming harder and harder just to provide his wife and
children with at least two meals a day. My father ran a very good (carpet)
business in Kacha Garhi camp, says Khan. But now the situation is
extremely bad.
Still, he says, I am staying here anyway because I want to educate my son
here in Peshawar.
PAKISTAN: Afghans Find Their Welcome Running Out
