Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti announced in early October that all unregistered asylum seekers from Afghanistan must leave the country within a month. Pakistani authorities estimated that of the 4.4 million Afghans living in the country, 1.7 million were unregistered (the UN estimate was lower at one million). The shocking announcement also rattled the millions of Afghan refugee communities in other countries in the region, in several of which the idea gained an immediate following. Including Iran, which has the largest Afghan diaspora in the region.
“People arriving at the border are exhausted and in need of emergency assistance as well as psychosocial support. Returning to Afghanistan adds to the humanitarian crisis as winter temperatures drop to -4 degrees Celsius at several border crossings. Many Afghan migrants, including women and children, are particularly vulnerable, including the possibility of losing their lives in the harsh winter if they are left without adequate shelter.” The humanitarian situation faced by expelled Afghan refugees has been described in a joint statement issued by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), calling on Pakistan to maintain a “safe haven for Afghans in need of safety”.
Although Pakistan has fallen behind in fulfilling its political promises, including the expulsion of unregistered Afghans, the existing levels of forced migration are also large. At the beginning of December, the number of migrants expelled from Pakistan who were forced to return to Afghanistan reached 500,000, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) informed Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL). In addition, hundreds of thousands are being driven towards the border from the other side – from Iran.
A country with a “perpetual state of emergency”
Aid groups have said the country is in a “perpetual state of emergency” as Afghanistan suffers from natural disasters, unemployment and record poverty. Pakistan’s sudden policy change, for example, has turned the area around Afghanistan’s Torkham and Spinbuldak border crossings into massive chaos, with tens of thousands of deportees gathering near them, RFE/RL correspondents have observed. Aid organizations are largely left with nothing to do as they are already facing challenges in providing aid to those regions of Afghanistan that have suffered from drought, recent earthquakes or have fled their homes due to the security situation. In addition, the operation is significantly hindered by the strictly restrictive Taliban administration.
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2023-12-18 06:42:03
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