Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch on Friday said that international community is not doing enough for Afghan refugees living inside Pakistan while spending “unimaginable sum of money for refugees in Turkey”.
“International community only pays us half a dollar per year for education and one dollar per year per head for Afghan refugees,” Baloch said during an interview with state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV).
The minister claimed that according to 1951 Refugee Law, the responsibility of bearing expenses of refugees rests with the international community and not with the country housing them but “they pulled back and we stayed silent”.
Baloch added that he pleaded the case three times during his participation in United Nations (UN) executive meeting.
“Now they are scared. They have doubled the package and pledge to contribute more, the reason is that 30 per cent people seeking refuge in Europe are Afghans and they think that if these refugees reach there, their (Europe) problems will increase,” Baloch claimed.
The minister complained that the international community only considers 1.5 million registered refugees as “our burden while non-registered refugees are neglected in this regard”.
‘Last date for repatriation’:
Baloch said that Afghanistan, Pakistan and UNHCR authorities regularly meet over the issue and Afghan government had promised that it will buy a land and make housing societies for these refugees while the UNHCR had committed that it will increase the $200 stipend offered to every refugee who goes back to Afghanistan to $500 or $4,000.
“It is unfortunate that neither the Afghan government did what it promised nor the UNHCR,” said Baloch.
The minister added that after the Torkham border incident, his ministry was under a lot of pressure to send the refugees back and he approached the cabinet to prolong the refugees’ stay till December 31, 2017, but they only agreed to make December 31, 2016 as the cut-off date.
“Our other ministries say Afghan government is doing nothing, UNHCR is doing nothing, so why must we bear the burden,” said the minister.
‘No citizenship’:
Answering a question about granting citizenship to Afghan refugees, he maintained that the suggestion is not workable as the only way they can be granted citizenship is on birth basis but such a law does not exist in Pakistan.
“Some countries give citizenship to everyone who is born there but UAE, Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries don’t practice this law and it does not exist in Pakistan also,” said Baloch.
The minister also clarified that no registered Afghan refugee is involved in terrorism and none of them is a beggar. “There is no beggar among them and none of the registered Afghan refugees is involved in terrorism. I am not talking about illegal refugees,” said the minister.
