KARACHI: Speakers at a seminar discussed anti-Afghan sentiments in the country and explained structural, legal and political flaws in the policy under which all undocumented immigrants, mostly Afghans, were being sent back to their countries.

The event — No Country to Call Home: Behind Pakistan’s Expulsion of Afghan Refugees — was hosted by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) on Thursday, Dawn.com reported.

Journalist Zia Ur Rehman, lawyer and human rights activist Abira Ashfaq and US-based political economist Uzair Younis

“How can someone living in Pakistan for two to four decades sell everything and leave,” asked Mr Rehman.

He explained how the decision to deport undocumented Afghan refugees en masse was beyond the caretaker government’s jurisdiction.

“Local hotels in Afghanistan aren’t accepting undocumented individuals, forcing many to take shelter from the cold in shanty tents,” he said.

Ms Ashfaq said that the country’s immigration policy was fundamentally flawed as Afghan men married to Pakistani women don’t get citizenship; although foreign women who marry Pakistani men acquire citizenship.

The other most glaring issue is that Afghans being detained have no access to lawyers even though they have the right to, she said.

A last-minute success, she said, was when she combed through official databases and found that certain detainees had been wrongfully detained and were still set for deportation, till she intervened.

Uzair Younis said that the sudden policy shift was the outcome of what he called a failed Afghan policy the country has had for decades.

“Pakistan doesn’t have financial or domestic political support anymore. The caretaker government chose this policy to scapegoat Afghans during an economic crisis in Pakistan,” he claimed.

“On the contrary, Afghans have contributed immensely to the economy, so by deporting Afghans, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, Younis said. From opening tandoor shops to picking trash to running neighbourhood convenience stores and more, Afghans have enriched the local landscape throughout Pakistan,” Mr Younis said.

Ms Ashfaq delved further into discrimination against Afghans by urging the audience to understand this issue through an imperialist lens. “This behaviour is synonymous with the colonisers’ way of ruling by dividing,” she said.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2023