Pakistan has hosted nearly 4 million Afghan refugees for decades as Afghanistan has been struggling to have lasting peace, security, and stability.
Pakistan’s role in welcoming the Afghans, displaced by instability and insecurity, has largely been acknowledged by the international community, in the prevailing circumstances where ‘goodwill’ is seen as a problem, adding to the security and political challenges of Pakistan.
Ultimately, Islamabad came up with a policy declaration to send all the undocumented and unregistered Afghans back to their country. The announcement got mixed response from Afghanistan and the world but was backed by the people of Pakistan. The deadline of October 31 is just two weeks away, and as warned by authorities, action will be taken against the illegal immigrants. The policy was explained as not Afghans specific, but against all the undocumented immigrants. The reality is that mostly Afghans, living in Pakistan without proper documents, will face the law of the land.
Pakistan’s decision is taken by some critics as mere a political one to exert pressure on Afghanistan to eliminate the bases of the Pakistani militant groups, allegedly involved in the cross-border terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. This rising violence incidents in the last two years may be one of the reasons, but there are other factors as well to regulate the immigrants. It is a known fact that Pakistan is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention of 1951 without having an asylum policy. Still, in reality, it has provided refuge to millions, beyond its resources.
According to the UNHCR, Pakistan is hosting nearly 3.7 million Afghan refugees, but only 1.3 million as registered with the UN agency. Pakistan says the total number of Afghan refugees including the latest arrivals, surpassed the figure of 4.2 million with only 1.4 million either having Proof-of-Residence or other Afghan citizen cards. More than 1.7 million were considered illegal as neither they have registered themselves with the UNHCR nor have any other valid travel documents. An estimated 800,000 Afghans were suspected to have entered into Pakistani system by obtaining national ID cards and passports.
Though Pakistan’s policy received some criticism and reaction from Afghanistan and human rights groups, officials, privy to the development, said this is a good decision, and it should been decided before. The government is seriously taking the refugees and illegal immigrants issue, and it is a positive development that it has been educating itself about this longstanding issue. The government should have proper data and facts as to where are the Afghans living, how are they coming and staying here, and under what circumstances.
This could be a test case for the caretaker government and also for future governments as to how the issue could be tackled in the weeks ahead. There was no proper data available for the Afghans, but mostly the decisions were taken on the approximate assessments and estimates. This is not a huge task to know about the Afghans, registered with the UN or any other organizations and also the irregular or undocumented refugees. The most challenging task is to investigate how many have illegally entered the system, and this will take time.
Pakistan has warned the illegal and unregistered Afghan refugees to repatriate voluntarily to their country before the deadline of October 31, set by the government approval from the Apex Committee, otherwise, federal and provincial law enforcement agencies will take action against them, and will be deported. According to some reports, citing border officials at Torkham and Chaman crossing points, approximately 23000 Afghans had already returned to Afghanistan. However, this number has not been substantiated by data on whether they were illegal refugees or usual visitors on visas. This could be verified once the process is formally started.
In a statement by the interim Afghan Ministry of Refugees, a national commission for the rehabilitation of Afghan refugees was formed and some makeshift camps were established in Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan and Kandahar to provide shelter to the refugees and their families. Afghanistan is also facing post-earthquake challenges in the western province of Herat, where around 5,000 people were killed and wounded in a deadly earthquake. Some philanthropists and rights groups are asking Pakistan to hold its policy for a while as this influx of illegal refugees could worsen the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Some reports emerged from different parts of the country that the police and other law enforcement agencies have already launched a crackdown against the Afghan refugees, and some refugees with valid documents and PoR cards were arrested. The federal government took notice of the reports and issued a notification directing the law enforcement agencies to avoid arresting Afghans with legal documents.
Pakistan has arrested hundreds of Afghan refugees under the 14 Foreign Act and deported some 2,500 Afghans, which was also verified by the Afghan authorities, from Karachi and the cities of Sindh. Reports say many Afghans are still in jail as they have entered Pakistan illegally. The law enforcement agencies will launch crackdowns across the country once the deadline expires.
What could be the outcome of this exercise of sending back hundreds of thousands of Afghans in the years ahead, but for the time being, Pakistan’s decision is not well received? It was also announced by Islamabad to take the Afghan interim government in the loop on the subject. The issue is not so simple and easy to implement. But what led Islamabad to decide to regulate the Afghan refugees? For sure, Pakistan has been repeatedly sharing the security challenges from the Afghan side of the border, and also the alleged hand of some Afghans in taking part in the terrorist attacks. Kabul and Islamabad had formally taken up the issue, but no change, rather more attacks.
The security challenge and cross-border violence may be one reason, but not the single one. However, every state has the right to independently assess and make decisions that are in the larger interest of the country. This could be seen as a positive development to regulate a segment of the Afghan population that will also help the Afghan government in the future to have real assessment of the situation.
