Pakistan remains host to world's largest refugee population

Pakistan remains host to world's largest refugee population
Pakistan remains host to the largest refugee population in the world with 1.9 million registered Afghan refugees.

An official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) Qaisar Afridi says that more unregistered members of the registered Afghan families including new born babies have been registered, taking the figure of registered Afghans in Pakistan to 1.9 million from last year's 1.7 million.

The Pakistani Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, which deals with Afghan refugees, says that there are nearly one million unregistered Afghan refugees, who are living outside the refugee camps in the country.

More than 3.5 million Afghans have returned home from Pakistan with UNHCR's help since 2002. The repatriation movement that followed the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001 was spontaneous and overwhelming.

In order to assist the returnees, UNHCR launched its repatriation operation on March 1 2002. Many refugees, especially those living in refugee camps, have shown little desire to go back to Afghanistan, says UNHCR.

Pakistan has issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to registered Afghans that will be valid until the end of 2012. The card is an important form of identification for Afghan refugees proving their legal right of stay in the country, and therefore giving important protection against possible detention or deportation, particularly during "crackdowns" against foreigners and suspected illegal immigrants in the wake of terror incidents.

The PoR cards, which were expired on December 31 2009, were replaced with new cards with enhanced identification features and extended until December 31,2012.

Khalil Ahmadzai, a former member of a council of the Afghan refugees in Islamabad, says Afghan refugees have been given facilities by Pakistan and UNHCR and many refugees are free to travel anywhere in Pakistan for business and labour.

However, there had been complaints by some Afghan refugees about ill-treatment and detention by the police to force them to pay money. But now the Afghan diplomats say problems of the refugees have decreased.

Dr Aluzai, who deals with the refugee affairs at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, says complaints of refugees have now dropped substantially.

Abdul Wali Kakar, an Afghan community activist, also says that complaints of police maltreatment with the refugees are rare.

UHNCR says that Pakistan has planned more facilities for the refugees. A visa regime will manage the stay of business people, students and other categories. Families headed by women in the absence of a male bread earner will be allowed to stay. Many Afghan refugee women are confronted with a very conservative environment where their freedom of movement and action is severely restricted.

Afghan refugee women face gender-related protection problems including gender-based violence, forced marriages and denial of their rights for education or employment, says UNHCR says. Pakistan's decision to naturalize those women who do have male member would be a great help to them to live in Pakistan.

Conditions for Afghan refugees in Pakistan differ greatly. Some live in mud house settlements that look like the villages they left behind. In urban areas, few Afghan refugees are fully integrated and well-off. The majority of urban refugees are in slum areas of Pakistan's major cities, surviving on casual labor.

Editor: Deng Shasha

English.news.cn   2011-06-19 19:04:27 FeedbackPrintRSS
by Muhammad Tahir

ISLAMABAD, June 19 (Xinhua)