Right Word | Afghan Refugees: A Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds in Pakistan as World Looks the Other Way

While the global media is abuzz with the images of an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, another such crisis of a much greater proportion is unfolding in Pakistan. But so far, the world hasn’t taken notice the way it should have. Even the Islamic countries have decided to ignore the threat of survival faced by no less than 1.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. An Islamic state is now targeting millions of Afghan Muslims and there isn’t much noise about it except from the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan.

On October 3, 2023, Pakistan’s interim Interior Minister, Sarfaraz Bugti, issued a stern warning to the ‘illegal’ residents while urging them to pack their stuff and leave Pakistan voluntarily by November 1, 2023. The military dictated that the interim administration directly asked the undocumented residents, particularly Afghans, “to willingly return to their” country, failing which they will be deported by the law enforcement agencies. Though Islamabad has asserted that its actions were not aimed at a particular community, however, it is a given that this is directed at Afghans only, who have been demonised by the state functionaries and political actors for all Pakistan ills.

This was an unambiguous ultimatum to unleash a crackdown towards forcing mass return of Afghans from the country unlike the past when various governments would occasionally raise the issue. The immediate carte blanche offered by the Pakistani establishment to justify this horrendous threat is the security of the state, as it accused refugees of being involved “in funding, facilitating terrorists and other illegal activities” and thereby threatening the security and stability of the state. However, it is an open secret how the Pakistani military-controlled establishment as well as its Army controlled civilian governments has over the years made Afghan refugees scapegoats and used them as casus belli to Pakistan’s deteriorating economic and security situation. The establishment has successfully exploited this deflection strategy to escape from accountability for its failures.

The country is currently battling extreme economic conditions, a highly repressed political atmosphere and deteriorated security situation, a perfect mix for creating the bogey of the external enemy for the Army establishment to deflect the attention from its failures. Further, these actions are portrayed as a mark of a strong establishment and are used to create optics that would hide the endless meddling of Pakistan military in its civilian affairs. Thus, the Pak military announced with much fanfare its intent to set up dozens of detention camps across provinces to hold Afghan refugees before deporting them. The interior ministry officials stated that “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have two deportation centers; in Nowshera and Chamkani, while Balochistan will house three facilities in the provincial capital of Quetta, and in Pishin and Qilla Abdullah districts.”

Notably, this policy is justifiable as it would directly affect Afghan refugees who had fled their homeland due to the conflict which was created and escalated by Pakistan to a large extent. This ruthless decision has resulted in instability for over 1.7 million Afghans in Pakistan. A significant proportion of these Afghan refugees have been born in Pakistan and have established their lives for long in the country.

What is noteworthy is that many of the ‘undocumented’ refugees being sent back had escaped Afghanistan because of the fear of prosecution by the Afghan Taliban, which overran the Republic in August 2021, through the active connivance of Pakistan and Pakistani Army. It is an open secret how Islamabad has been playing a double game in Afghanistan for decades. On one hand, it supported the American War on Terror which overthrew the Taliban in 2001, on the other hand it offered safe sanctuary to the very same group inside its territory. Islamabad had presumed that installing Taliban in Kabul in 2021 would provide it the crucial strategic depth in Afghanistan. These hopes have dissipated. There are frequent violent confrontations along the Durand Line- the border between the two countries. In fact, the legitimacy of this border itself has been contested by Afghans irrespective of political ideology, including Taliban.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has vehemently condemned Pakistan’s ultimatum to the Afghan refugees, calling Pakistan’s behaviour utterly “unacceptable”. Zabiullah Mujahid, the Afghan Taliban government spokesperson, on October 4, 2023, contested the claims of Pakistani government and emphasised that Afghans were not “involved in Pakistan’s security problems.” However, since then, Afghan Taliban has amplified its efforts to receive Afghans inside the border despite the acute lack of resources. Taliban government’s minister for refugees Khalil Haqqani warned the Pakistani establishment against giving “Afghans a hard time” lest they “make more enemies.” As on date, nearly 2, 75,000 Afghan refugees have been literally pushed beyond Durand Line through multiple border crossings, including Torkham check post. This displacement has threatened tearing apart thousands of families who had found refuge in Pakistan for years. These Afghans have been displaced for years, as Pakistan collaborated with multiple partners to ensure the country remained bogged down in the conflict and at the very first instance helped undo two decades of progress in a democratic set up. The democratic set up in Afghanistan wasn’t without some deep flaws but still it was a democracy and there was some semblance to rule of law and the religious bigotry was kept under check. But thanks to Pakistan, democracy is dead and Taliban’s rule is based on religious bigotry.

Given the manner Pakistani government machinery is administering this self-created crisis, it has turned into a humanitarian catastrophe. Multiple human rights organizations including the UN, have condemned Pakistan’s actions, citing violations of international human rights laws and the potential for severe human rights abuses upon their return to Afghanistan. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Pakistani government of “using threats, abuse, and detention to coerce Afghan asylum seekers without legal status to return to Afghanistan.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated nearly 600000 of those facing deportation escaped Afghanistan because of the Taliban takeover in 2021. Many of these were further planning to relocate to many western countries such as the US, UK and Germany through the asylum process. HRW has noted that since the visa documents of most of these asylum seekers had expired pending any decision by the western countries, they have been rendered in a limbo.

What is more concerning in this deportation is how Pakistan is pushing the 2021 arrivals, including former functionaries of the Republican government and rights defenders, into the hands of the Afghan Taliban government thereby raising legitimate concerns about their safety and well-being. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights asserted, Pakistan’s actions directly violate international human rights law. “We believe many of those facing deportation will be at grave risk of human rights violations if returned to Afghanistan, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, cruel and other inhuman treatment,” it stated in a statement.

Simultaneously, it is alarming to note that the Pakistani government has created an environment of fear and hence effectively suppressed any dissenting voices among its citizens regarding this harsh and ruthless policy resulting in a human tragedy of catastrophic proportions. This silence casts a dark shadow on Pakistan’s collective moral conscience, tarnishing the goodwill it had earned over the years for providing sanctuary to Afghan refugees. Though it was ironic too as the Pakistan government and military Army had played an active role in creating the circumstances that compelled the exodus of millions of Afghans from Afghanistan.

As the world remains glued to the unfolding events in the Middle East and Ukraine, it cannot afford to overlook this humanitarian crisis enforced by Pakistan. In a bid to put undue pressure on the Afghan Taliban government and also the Western countries with stake in Afghanistan, Pakistan has put millions of Afghans’ lives at stake. It is, therefore, essential for the international community to ensure that the rights of Afghans are preserved and the lives of those Afghans are saved who were forced to flee their homes in fear of persecution by a force that Pakistan had reared for decades.

The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views