KARACHI, Dec 14: Pakistan in particular and South Asia in general have been affected badly by migrations over the years. But Pakistan, and also the other countries of the region, are yet to ratify the international conventions on status of refugees and stateless people.

The countries of the region are reluctant to initial the said conventions because they feel that if they did so, they would be held responsible for each step they take. The procrastination on their part continues to make life difficult for the international aid agencies and NGOs, besides the migrants.

According to speakers at an event on Saturday — titled “Fourth International Workshop on Forced Migration: Challenges and Responses” — in all, a total of 90 million people are living outside countries of their birth.

In Pakistan, there are 3.5 million undocumented labourers. More than two million of them live in Karachi alone.

Even this figure seemed to be on the lower side since many of the illegal immigrants had managed to acquire fake identity documents, said Khalil Shaikh. Lack of implementation of the relevant laws and corruption in high places had allowed these people to lay their hands upon fake papers.

Mr Shaikh said many illegal aliens regularly indulged in criminal activities. “Undocumented labourers are involved in drug trafficking, prostitution, human smuggling, kidnapping and even rape,” he stated.

The illegal labourers hailed from Bangladesh, Burma, Afghanistan, India, Iran, Sri Lanka and Central Asian states, etc. They were forced to leave the countries of origin due to financial and political difficulties.

Mr Shaikh said that as many as 87 councillors in Karachi’s union councils were of Bengali origin. “The authorities are looking into this issue.”

Another speaker at the workshop — organized jointly by Karachi University’s International Relations department and Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad — claimed that at the time of independence about ten million people had to migrate from India to Pakistan and from Pakistan to India.

Amtul Hasan of Karachi University said a total of seven million people migrated from India to Pakistan within a span of a few months. At the time of independence the population of West Punjab was about 17.2 million which rose to 19.3 million within a short period of time.

The population of East Punjab, on the other hand, was 18.9 million souls, which fell to 16.8 million after the mass movement of people, she said.

The main reason for the mass movement of people was the systematic campaign of violence mounted by Sikhs and Hindus. “The first violent incident took place in Bihar, which later spread to UP and East Punjab.”

London Times had written that at partition more Indians had been killed than at any other period in the area’s history, said Ms Hasan.

On the occasion, a paper written by Dr Christos Theodoropoulos of the UNHCR was presented by Prof Sikander Mehdi of Karachi University. In his paper, Dr Theodoropoulos pointed out that South Asian countries, despite hosting a very large number of migrants, hadn’t initialled the international conventions on status of refugees and stateless people, etc.

He urged the countries of the region to ratify the concerned conventions as soon as possible.

Prof R.A. Ariyaratne of Sri Lanka said in his country a total of one million people had been displaced internally as a consequence of the ethnic conflict there. “And about half a million people had to refuge out of the country.”

He told the participants of the workshop that a systematic campaign of violence had been targeted at the Sri Lankan Muslims, who were displaced internally in hundreds of thousands.

These Muslims, he said, were provided refuge by some Muslim landlords in the hope that the problem would be resolved within months. A couple of decades on, the situation had turned nasty and the people, who initially provided the displaced people refuge and shelter, now want to see the last of them.

Hina Khan of Karachi University spoke of the situation obtaining in Central Asia and the Caucasus. She was of the view that the governments there either weren’t really willing to resolve the problem or were severely hampered in their efforts.

“The only ray of hope is provided by the international aid agencies and NGOs, even though these were also facing a host of problems.”

The papers written by Dr Ishtiaq Hossain and Dr Lok Raj Baral were presented on the occasion by Prof Sikander Mehdi. The paper of Sugees Senadhira was read out by Prof Ariyaratne. Maryam Khokhar and M.H. Askari also spoke on the occasion.

Meanwhile, Prof Sikander Mehdi told Dawn that the vice-chancellor of Karachi University had promised to get the papers presented at the workshop published.