ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The Afghan refugees after their return to Afghanistan will act as goodwill ambassadors of Pakistan and the better treatment given to Afghan refugees will further enhance the ties between the people and governments of the two countries.

This was stated by the chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Afrasiab Khattak, while addressing a seminar on “Protection issues and rights of Afghan refugees”, which was organized by the Sach - Struggle for Change - here on Wednesday.

“Laws are present for wars, but unfortunately there are no laws and principles for addressing the human problems, which are the outcome of conflicts and wars,” the chairman said.

There should be a world level legislation to address the human problems, he added.

Expressing shock and concern over the decrease in the aid to Afghanistan, the HRCP chairman said that during the war, the world community provided aid to the Afghans but the aid was later reduced in 1995 and now the Afghans receive a nominal aid, which could not meet the requirements of these people.

Pakistan is not a signatory of the 1951 UN convention regarding the status of refugees or the UN protocol of 1967, hence it has not adopted a domestic legislation concerning the treatment of refugees or granting them asylum status, he added.

Under the current policy, the government treats all the undocumented refugees as aliens making them subject to deportation, Mr Khattak said.

However, the government allowed a vast majority of Afghan who illegally entered the country to stay here, he added.

The exact number of Afghan refugees who entered the country after 9/11 incident is difficult to ascertain. It is generally believed that between 160,000 to 200,000 persons entered Pakistan through the official border crossings in the NWFP and Balochistan.

Around 1.5 million registered Afghans are present in the country, whereas, about 1.4 million unregistered Afghans are living in the urban areas throughout Pakistan, particularly in cities like Peshawar, Islamabad, Quetta and Rawalpindi.

After the war situation in Afghanistan, a large number of refugees entered Pakistan in search of shelter, security and basic necessities but these people are still living under miserable circumstances without any legal status.

A senior police official, Taimoor Ali Khan, while giving a brief account of police operations said that so far the police, under the Foreigners Act, had arrested 159 illegal immigrants belonging to 11 different countries.

Out of these 159 persons, 138 belonged to Afghanistan, he added.

“During last year, 577 persons were arrested out of which 548 were Afghans,” Mr Khan said.

He said that after recently introduced amendments in the Foreigners Act 1946, there were no chances of bail and the arrested person would be sent to jail for a period of ten years.

Speakers including Pasha Khan, a lawyer by profession and working for Sach’s ALAC project, Ahmed Shah, Advocate Anwar Shah, Ms Sonia, and Ms Fakhrun Nisa, also expressed their views on the occasion. — Sardar Sheeraz