PESHAWAR, Oct 6: Some 300 Afghan refugee families have sought legal assistance for the recovery of their stuck up money, involving over Rs50 million claims against Pakistani businessmen and property owners.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), a humanitarian organisation, said apart from financial disputes, cases of sexual harassment of female refugees, detention of juveniles and women in drug-trafficking cases and police highhandedness had been reported from different refugee camps in the province.
The NRC said sexual harassment and forced marriages were common and its teams recently received such complaints from Azgharo camp in Kurram Agency.
The refugees informed the NRC team that the camp’s security staff sexually harassed their females and were also involved in theft cases.
The organisation has put forward the case to the UNHCR and the refugee agency has taken up the matter with the Afghan commissionerate.
The additional commissioner of the commissionerate, Mr Jalil, claimed that sexual harassment of females was not in their knowledge.
However, he confirmed that some four days back one of the security guards of the Azgharo camp received bullet injuries when the security staff started chasing some intruders in the camp.
He said the agency’s political authorities were investigating the matter.
The NRC representative said many Afghan families would not proceed to their country unless their (refugees) financial and land disputes with the local people were resolved. About 20 cases have been resolved through mediation, so far.
NRC Resident representative Lisbeth V. Pilegaard believed that monetary and land disputes had become major hurdles in the way of Afghan families.
The NRC, a partner of the UNHCR, has set up two centres in Peshawar to disseminate information about repatriation process and provide legal assistance to the home going Afghan families in Pakistan.
The NRC officials revealed that about 50 refugee families had complained that a businessman from Lahore had deprived them of Rs10 million and had disappeared from the scene.
The affectees claimed that they made a deal with the businessman in Shoba Bazar, Peshawar. The businessman purchased carpets worth Rs5 million and the trader furnished a cheque to the weavers. But the bank did not honour the cheque.
A shopping plaza owner, hailing from the tribal area of Khyber Agency, had taken away the security amount of Afghan tenants in Peshawar. The matter has been brought to the notice of the political authorities of the agency.
Besides, some 100 inmates of the notorious Tajabad makeshift camp, Peshawar, are running dispute with the land owner.