Pakistan to send back millions of Afghan refugees
Pakistan is forcing more than 2.6 million Afghan refugees to return to their country, a move international rights groups call as “inhumane” and “unlawful.”
An official from the Pakistani Ministry of States and Frontier Region said on Monday that 1.6 million registered and another one million unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan should leave by December at the latest.
The unnamed official said the deadline for the registered refugees to return to their homeland will be December, while the unregistered refugees should leave immediately under an agreement with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The decision was made as part of a security overhaul after pro-Taliban militants stormed a school in Peshawar and killed nearly 150 students last December.
Refugee camps are scattered all over Pakistan. Police raided several places after the school attack because it is believed that militants often disguise themselves as refugees.
Inhumane and unlawful
International rights groups have expressed concern about Pakistan's new decision, saying the move seriously endangers the safety of the refugees upon their return home.
In a statement on Sunday, the Human Rights Watch urged Islamabad to stop the forceful repatriation of the refugees, saying Pakistan should protect the Afghan nationals in the country.
“Pakistani officials should not be scapegoating Afghans because of the Taliban’s atrocities in Peshawar,” HRW's deputy Asia director said in a statement.
“It is inhumane, not to mention unlawful, to return Afghans to places they may face harm and not protect them from harassment and abuse,” said Phelim Kine (pictured above).
Pakistan is quite known for its hospitality toward the Afghan refugees, but terrorist attacks over the past months have triggered a violent crackdown on Afghan nationals living in the country. Reports suggest that many refugees have already departed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces and Azad Kashmir administrative territory due to a surge in the number of detentions, arrests and forceful evictions of Afghans in those areas.
UNHCR says Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees within its borders over the past decades and nearly 3.8 million refugees have already returned home.
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