July 6, 2003

With the situation still dicey in Afghanistan, the refugees are reluctant to return home, but, of course, Pakistan alone cannot deal with them

OVER 60,000 Afghan refugees were about to abandon the sprawling Katcha Garhi camp by the end of June after they had received eviction notices from the Afghan Commissionerate, asking them either to go back to their war-shattered country or adopt urban refugee life.

The reason for the closure of the Katcha Garhi camp was apparently to level the ground for the construction of a residential colony for army officers. The beleaguered refugees, who had been living at the Katcha Garhi for the last twenty years, are reluctant to vacate the camp site and return to their homeland where insecurity and poverty awaits.

One third population of the camp had already left for their homeland under the UN-sponsored voluntary repatriation programme. The eviction process had intensified with the deadline drawing near when orders from Islamabad brought the process to a halt and the intending returnees got a year’s extension to stay.

Officials say Islamabad gave an year’s extension to the camp dwellers in lieu of the release of 65 Pakistani prisoners from Afghan jails. The Commissioner of Afghan refugees, Brigadier (retd) Mushtaq Alizai, says that the camp elders, most of them from eastern Nangarhar province, took up the issue at the highest level so that even Gen Pervez Musharraf had to intervene. President Karzai, who was in Islamabad on April 23, asked his Pakistani counterpart to extend the deadline for the Katcha Garhi camp refugees. Well-placed sources in the provincial capital said that Islamabad was going soft on the refugees issue because of its long-run strategic interests in the region. They say that from day one, Pakistan had provided shelter to Afghan refugees on political, not humanitarian grounds.

Officials say Islamabad has very limited and tough choices after the refugees phenomenon, a grim aftermath of the 25-year-long Afghan imbroglio. Data compiled by different government agencies reveals that Pakistan still shelters some 1.2 million registered and some 800,000 unregistered refugees. Afghan Commissionerate officials say that over 1.3 million of the total refugee population is living in the NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) as a majority of them are Pukhtuns.

Pakistan - a non-signatory of the 1951 Geneva Convention - is feeding a major refugee population through its own resources.

The UNHCR says that 1.5 million Afghans have returned to their country under the voluntary repatriation programme in 2002. The UN agency has planned to send 600,000 more refugees from Pakistan in 2003.

Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR signed a tripartite agreement in Brussels last year to send the remaining 1.8 million refugees back to their country within the next three years. Conditionally, Pakistan can’t force refugees to go back to their country. No accurate data is available to determine how many of the repatriated Afghans have sneaked back into Pakistan through the 1,500 miles long porous Durand Line after receiving financial packages at the encashment points in Afghanistan. This alarming situation has forced the UN agency to install state-of-the-art iris machines at three different points to discourage recyclers.

UN and Pakistani officials say that the future of the repatriation process depends upon Afghanistan’s internal security and economic condition. UNHCR officials admit that the uncertainty and unrest prevalent in Afghanistan is discouraging refugees from returning. Estimatedly, Afghanistan needs $15 billion in aid over the next five years for reconstruction.

In a conference held in Tokyo last year, donors pledged to provide over $4 billion to the war-ravaged country, but the reconstruction is yet to start. The UNHCR’s office in Peshawar reports that 100,000 Afghans have gone back to their homeland between March and May 2003, while some 564,644 refugees had returned in the corresponding months in the previous year. Mr Mushtaq Alizai believes that the poor and damaged infrastructure cannot absorb such a huge number of returnees, discouraging the refugees from going back.

The commissioner said the Afghans were desperate to return in 2002. But the volatile conditions disappointed them and many have sneaked back into Pakistan.

The refugee population leads a secure life in Pakistan. They will not return unless the international community provides them with the same peaceful environment in Afghanistan.

Critics say that Pakistan has not learnt from the past. And that despite Pakistan’s foreign policy debacle in Afghanistan, Islamabad is still gambling on assumptions. Mysterious movements and activities have been noticed near the border areas. Caravans of vehicles are on their way to the Durand Line. One well-placed source disclosed that the officials who are looking after refugee camps in the tribal areas have received instructions from Islamabad to ignore the presence of radical elements in the border areas.

Though our interior minister has ignored Kabul’s concerns, clouds of mistrust have started to hover over the Durand Line. The Afghan transitional government has held the Pakistan-based elements responsible for recent developments on the streets of Kabul.

Islamabad is also uneasy over the growing Kabul-Delhi nexus, the opening of Indian consulates in Jalalabad and Kandahar and the strong presence of Panjsheeris in Kabul. The ruling establishment in Islamabad is also concerned about the Pukhtuns living across the Durand Line. One official says that Islamabad cannot disassociate itself from Afghanistan if the conflict re-escalates across the western borders.

Obviously, Pakistan needs like-minded Afghans to secure its strategic interests in the region. That is why the majority of refugees staying back in Pakistan are Pukhtuns, belonging to the eastern provinces. A small number of other ethnic groups are also enjoying Pakistan’s hospitality. Policy-makers in Islamabad have yet to realise the the refugees’ repercussions on the social and economic sectors. No doubt, they own a handsome share of the export of hand-knotted carpets and gemstones. And Pakistan received financial assistance from abroad for the refugees. But noone recognised the magnitude of the problem created by the refugees. The people of Pakistan especially those in NWFP and Fata are suffering socially and economically.

A study conducted by the United Nations Development Programme in 1990 revealed that refugee hosting areas in the NWFP and Fata required $208 million to rehabilitate the sectors of health, communication, education, irrigation, forestry and others. The UNDP last year conducted another study to assess the damage in the refugee hosting areas. The agency has yet to release its report. Commissionerate officials said that Pakistan will not be able to get rid of the refugees dilemma, unless the elders leave Pakistan who are are not ready to go back. They prefer life in self-imposed exile. As does Syed Ishaq Gillani, chairman National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan who lives in a rented cottage in a posh locality of Peshawar. The former Jihadi leader claims to be the biggest landlord of Nangarhar province but doesn’t want to give up his refugee life. He believes that the Pakhtuns can’t return to their country. In the north they as a minority face a backlash from the Tajiks and the Uzbeks. In the south and south-east, the Americans bomb their homes. Like Gillani, other Afghan Pukhtun leaders, including the ruling class families, warlords and former Jihadi commanders, are also living in luxury here. Many of them have turned the refugee camps into their colonies.

They have big business networks in Pakistan and abroad, receiving land route trade permits from Islamabad. Some Afghan politicians and their wives are running BONGOs (Business Oriented NGOs), funded by donor agencies. A committee of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department detected some 200 unregistered NGOs in Peshawar and Islamabad, run by Afghans which received funding from the UN and other donors in the name of humanitarian assistance.Their number now reaches 1,200. Officials reported that Jihadi commanders have also started interfering in official matters. The law enforcing agencies attribute the soaring rates of crimes to the presence of refugees in the urban areas of the province.

The Regional director of the National Data and Registration Authority, Anwar Khan said that 21,000 fake identity cards, obtained by the Afghans, had been detected in the Frontier province. Nadra has registered FIRs against 1,500 Afghans in different police stations of the province.Immigration officials have arrested 16 Afghans at the Peshawar International Airport for possessing fake Pakistani passports.

The country has inherited a Klashnikov culture, with drug trafficking, smuggling, sectarianism, devastation of natural resources, environmental degradation from the Afghan turmoil. The protection of refugees is one of the core mandates of the UN refugee agency.

As far as the Afghan refugees are concerned, the UN bodies are not ready to recognise their mandatory status. The UNHCR has stopped food assistance to Afghan refugees since 1995. Afghan Commissionerate officials disclosed that it was Islamabad’s and the UNHCR’s joint decision to stop the food assistance for refugees. The September 11 act diverted the international community’s attention from the plight of refugees in Pakistan.

At present, the WFP is distributing food assistance to the refugees who live in nine new camps. Only 71,000 refugees are getting food assistance out of a total of 1.8 million remaining refugees in Pakistan. The rest of the Afghans live on a self-sustenance basis. The UNHCR and its partners are just providing them with the basic health care, education and drinking water.

Officials say that the international community is no longer interested in Afghan refugees. The Islamic relief agencies who played a major role in assisting the refugees in Pakistan, are winding up their activities. The UN refugee agency is running short of funds as its donors are not responding forcing the agency to gradually reduce its budget for Afghan refugees.

The UNHCR’s senior public information officer Jack Redden said that the budget for Pakistan in 2002 was $51.7 million. In 2003, the figure is projected at $37 million, but it could be lowers. The UNHCR has estimated $28 million to cover the repatriation operation for 2004. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, world dignitaries including Bush senior and Mrs Thatcher had visited Katcha Garhi and other camps. The entire Muslim world, and China were behind the Afghans in liberating Afghanistan from outsiders. After achieving their goal the international community has now backed out, leaving Pakistanis and Afghans in the lurch.

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