Policing Afghans in Pakistan

Be careful when you tread through the marshes

Any knee jerk measures aimed at only throwing out Afghans from Pakistan would further complicate the latter’s own security along the Durand Line. Moreover, any such unplanned forced repatriation might point towards Pakistan’s state led efforts to segregate Pashtuns.

The repatriation of the Afghan refugees from Pakistan has accelerated in the last one year. Since the formation of the National Action Plan about two years ago, Pakistan has attempted to put a lid on its years-long and largely unfulfilled policy of gradual return of Afghans back to their homeland.

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, majority of the Afghans who fled their country to avoid bloodshed and chaos found space in Pakistan. The number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan further propelled after the 9/11 attack in the US which triggered another period of war in the country.

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at present about 1.2 million Afghan refugees are still present in Pakistan. Moreover, the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) has enlisted about 600,000 Afghans which returned to Afghanistan last year alone.

While a recent meeting that was chaired by Pakistan’s prime minister further extended the deadline for the Afghan refugees’ return – the new deadline has been extended till the end of 2017 – the latest push which deals with the forced repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan has largely been placed in the realm of ‘security concerns.’ Particularly the recent wave of attacks that took place all across the country have again renewed calls for forced return of Afghan families.

The problem here is twofold. First, in the last three decades, Pakistan has never had a policy regarding the settlement of Afghan refugees: the Afghan families which left their country about three decades ago are not eager to return, for any such measure would surely uproot their lives which they have been able to build in Pakistan. Moreover, while the Afghan refugees’ presence in Pakistan has changed the country’s economic, political, social and security equilibrium to a great extent, Pakistan’s policy of deporting millions of Afghan through a policy which is led by security and political reasons does not bode well for the country’s security.

If Pakistan is aiming to expedite the return of Afghan refugees largely due to security concerns than its going to complicate Pakistan’s security worries further. Afghanistan’s war torn economy cannot hold such a large number of refugees and that too at a time when foreign aid has started to wear out from the country. The recent large scale repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan has already beleaguered Kabul’s aid-based economy.”These people are falling between the cracks. There’s an urgent need for assistance, or the consequences may be fatal,” argues Kate O’Rourke, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)’s representative in Afghanistan. Moreover, according to a report by the Feinstein International Centre, “one in three Afghan children is malnourished, with rates far higher in conflict-affected regions. Access to health care remains very limited, with 15 percent of the population without access to even basic healthcare services. In areas where fighting continues, militants lack respect for the neutrality of health care facilities, making visiting these facilities dangerous.”

I further argue that “After Mansour’s death, Pakistan’s much-publicised drive to register and blacklist Afghan refugees who might be involved in some sort of future wrongdoing, in a way, mirrors the country’s previous approach that sought an end to its policy of differentiating between terrorists, which, internationally, has been relegated as nothing more than a rhetoric.”

Any knee jerk measures aimed at only throwing out Afghans from Pakistan would further complicate the latter’s own security along the Durand Line. Moreover, any such unplanned forced repatriation might point towards Pakistan’s state led efforts to segregate Pashtuns. One of the fallouts of the recent bombings in Pakistan has been in the form of racial profiling of Pashtuns and Afghan refugees which doesn’t bode well for the country’s domestic security in any way. Reportedly, Pashtuns and Afghans living in Punjab were publically harassed by the law enforcement agencies. Also, public sentiment in this regard has been on similar lines: pamphlets and reports have been published on wider scale to urge people to report Pashtuns and Afghans to police if they are found doing their traditional labour jobs of selling toys or other household materials which have come to be associated with Afghans. The majority of the refugees are members of the Pushtun tribes — the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan – estimated at 51 percent – and also a significant ethnic group in Pakistan. Any such policy actions would not only alienate Pakistan’s own Pushtun population, but would also further divide the country on racial and ethnic lines.  

Second, Pakistan’s unplanned response related to the return of Afghan refugees appears as an action followed to punish the Afghan government for its recent hostile attitudes towards Islamabad. As I have argued elsewhere: “Mullah Mansour’s death that took place in Pakistan has deepened hostility between the neighbours: while Afghanistan’s decision not to participate in the upcoming SAARC summit in Pakistan is being seen in Islamabad as a New Delhi’s ploy to isolate Pakistan, for Kabul, it’s a decision to further strengthen its strategic partnership with India which is built on a shared vision of countering terrorism and extremism in the region.” I further argue that “After Mansour’s death, Pakistan’s much-publicised drive to register and blacklist Afghan refugees who might be involved in some sort of future wrongdoing, in a way, mirrors the country’s previous approach that sought an end to its policy of differentiating between terrorists, which, internationally, has been relegated as nothing more than rhetoric.”

While Afghan refugees face an uncertain future in Pakistan, Islamabad needs to devise a workable policy for the repatriation of Afghan nationals – one that also takes into account the humanitarian reason – for only such policy action can ensure Pakistan’s security and can also improve its relations with Afghanistan.