While the unfolding crisis in West Asia has garnered attention, the mass expulsion of Afghan refugees from Pakistan in November 2023 has received little attention from the international community. A second phase of deportations is now underway, but broader geopolitical tensions are once again obscuring the issue.
Pakistan has generously hosted Afghan refugees for more than 40 years, with the number usually estimated at 3 to 4 million. This process had already begun in 1979 due to foreign intervention, civil war, repeated natural disasters, and tough economic opportunities. The latest influx into Pakistan occurred after the Taliban seized power in 2021, a watershed led by Pakistan itself, after which an estimated 600,000 people trickled into the country.
Islamabad’s long-standing aid to Afghan refugees was cut off at a time when Afghanistan-Pak relations were at their lowest point due to the Taliban’s reluctance to rein in Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The TTP, which has been emboldened to carry out deadly attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban takeover, is an ideological ally of the Afghan Taliban intended to overthrow the Pakistani military and impose a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. It is a sect.
Describe the status of the ongoing repatriation
Afghan refugees in Pakistan can be divided into three main groups. There are approximately 840,000 undocumented Afghans holding Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) and 1.3 million Proof of Registration (PoR) card holders. In 2017, ACCs were issued (in collaboration with the Afghan government) to Afghans who were unable to obtain UNHCR-issued PoR cards during the 2006-2007 census. These three groups have varying levels of access to basic services. While undocumented Afghans have the least access, PoR cardholders enjoy the most, including legal access to public education and health care, and the freedom to obtain a SIM card and open a bank account.
On October 3, 2023, the Interim Government of Pakistan, led by then Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakkar and supported by the military, announced the first phase of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Program (IFRP). Based on this, all illegal aliens were given an ultimatum to voluntarily leave the country by November 1, or face deportation. In theory, it targeted all illegal aliens residing in Pakistan, regardless of their origin, but in practice it primarily targeted the 1.7 million illegal Afghans.
The then Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti (currently Chief Minister of Balochistan) claimed that Afghan nationals were responsible for 14 of the 24 suicide bombings recorded in 2023, and Kakar himself has made similar claims. went. Since then, more than 500,000 Afghans have left the country, including some born in Pakistan and some who have not visited Afghanistan in many years.
In March this year, a Pakistani newspaper reported: dawn, reported that all relevant authorities have been directed to “expedite the mapping of ACC holders.” The movement has been touted as a second phase of repatriation and is said to pick up pace after Eid al-Fitr, which was celebrated in Pakistan on April 10. Shortly after, an Amnesty International report on April 4 warned that this would lead to “a new wave of harassment and detention after the holy month of Ramadan” and described Pakistan’s “callous disregard” for Afghan refugees. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said.
But just recently, VOA reported that Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has no plans to repatriate ACC holders. Despite this declaration, thousands of Afghans are currently being expelled, according to local media figures from April. According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, between April 1 and 20, ACC holders and undocumented Afghans were arrested and detained at a 25% higher rate than PoR holders and asylum seekers.
Following the completion of the second phase, the third phase will also be extended to PoR cardholders. However, the only saving grace is that they have been granted a new extension until June 30th to legally stay in the country. This marks a recalibration of the newly elected government’s approach, especially as some have raised concerns about the unjust nature of deporting “legal” Afghans (both ACC and PoR card holders). This may be due to. For example, as Dawn reported, a spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government lamented that such action would “further hatred, misunderstanding and mistrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Existing legal mechanisms or lack thereof
Pakistan, like other South Asian countries (with the exception of Afghanistan), is not a party to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. Despite a decades-long history of protecting Afghan refugees, the country does not have an internal refugee framework to guide policy. So far, this directive is based on her 1946 Aliens Act, so it retains vestiges of its colonial heritage.
However, Pakistan is bound by a number of international obligations and the widely recognized principle of non-refoulement, under which it cannot repatriate Afghan refugees knowing that their freedoms and rights may be threatened. I can’t. Additionally, Pakistan is acceding to the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). According to Article 3 of the Convention, “No State shall expel, return (“return”) or hand over a person to another State if: He would be at risk of being tortured. ”
In the first phase, Pakistani authorities not only triggered a mass exodus, but also harassed both legal and illegal Afghan refugees, prompting many to “voluntarily” evacuate out of fear. This also technically meant he was forced to leave the field, and was equivalent to refoulement. Human Rights Watch reported that abuses against Afghans included night raids by police, bulldozing of homes, seizure of livestock, jewelry, and other personal property, sexual harassment, and demands for exorbitant bribes. These actions violated a number of international safeguards in place.
Pakistan had argued that once the security situation in Afghanistan stabilized, Afghans could end their fears of persecution and then return to their homeland. But the fact is that women, religious minorities, journalists, musicians, civil society activists, and those who previously served in the U.S. military, NATO forces, or the former Afghan government have enough to worry about state persecution. There’s a reason. The Taliban government has vowed to grant “amnesty” to the latter two groups, but its resolve has been undermined by numerous reports of revenge killings.
Compounding the situation is the failure of Western countries, especially signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention, to commit to efficiently relocating at-risk Afghans. Last year, the US shared a list of 25,000 vulnerable Afghans eligible for resettlement in their country, which led US officials to visit Islamabad in quick succession in early December 2023. did. The talks were fruitless as Pakistan went ahead with the negotiations. their deportation and arrest.
What do you need now?
In hindsight, the forced eviction of millions of Afghans into a country that is already dependent on humanitarian aid, has a high internally displaced population (more than 6 million people), and is not equipped to absorb the influx. Pakistan’s decision to let the country move should be revised. Moreover, the expulsion of mostly Muslim Afghans is hardly consistent with Pakistan’s image as a “stronghold of Islam.”
From harrowing scenes of Afghan refugees clinging to planes to being forced to cram their lives into trucks amid the Taliban takeover in 2021, they continue to struggle with unimaginable challenges with scant support. . Therefore, the international Applying pressure has become the need of the times. This is even more evident at a time when there is a growing recognition that the world has abandoned Afghanistan and that its people are in crisis.
Banti Rani Patro is a Research Fellow at the Center for Air Power Research, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal.
