PAKISTAN saw a massive influx of refugees from Afghanistan during the 1980s. Now, there are about 1.5 million registered and 1.7 million unregistered Afghans still living on Pakistan soil.

Pakistan has set up more than 500 schools for Afghan children and there are more than 550 hospitals exclusively made for Afghan refugees. Some 40pc of Afghanistan is out of the Kabul administration’s control. Forced repatriation and humiliating the Afghan refugees can be disastrous for Pakistan, because the only beneficiary of such policies will be Pakistan’s eastern neighbour and other international players in this situation.

I would request our government not to register refugees anymore and control the situation at home first.

Abdul Aziz Baloch

Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017