Afghan refugees languishing in makeshift camps in Pakistan, have been waiting for the west to fulfil its promise of taking them to their countries but to no avail. Their anguish rises as the Occident welcomes the Ukrainian refugees with open arms but refuses to offer the same hospitality to the Afghans. They are aghast at the double standards of the west. In recent months, thousands of Afghan refugees, including women and children, have been rounded up and imprisoned for overstaying their visas or lacking adequate documentation. Afghan refugees have been protesting in Islamabad against the US government since the fall of Kabul. They allegedly claim that the Americans and other European countries had promised them and their families for Visas and if they were to head back into Afghanistan, they would be sentenced to death without being given an opportunity to a ‘free and fair trial’.
Although Pakistan has not adopted the UN Refugee Convention 1951, which confers a legal duty on countries to protect people fleeing serious harm, it has entered a tripartite agreement with Afghanistan and the UNCHR to provide Afghan refugees with registration documents that entitles them to stay. The displaced persons are running out of money – like all Afghans, they have not been able to access their own bank accounts due to Western sanctions on financial dealings with the Taliban. At present, Pakistan is facing political instability and economic crisis. Particularly, foreign investment stopped, which further gave a setback to the economy. As a result, Islamabad’s dependence on US-controlled financial institutions like IMF and the World Bank, increased, as it was compelled to borrow more them.
The Afghan refugees had already violated the terms of their one-year Pakistan visas, which require them to leave the country every two months. The double-digit inflation, which has hit Pakistan badly affects the cost of living for the hapless Afghans too. It is also matter of fact that the Afghans stuck in Pakistan are suffering tremendous challenges, besides the shortage of funds or employment opportunities, they have no access to the basic sanitation facilities, health facilities, source of income to ration for everyday supplies and due to the reason’s adults, women, young children, infants are affected day by day and the entire saga is wreaking havoc in the locality and is tantamount to wreaking havoc.
The displaced Afghans stuck in Pakistan seek financial assistance from the UN but due to documentation issues, they can neither be registered as official asylum seekers by the UNHCR or the Pakistan government.
After the Taliban regained power in Kabul, they had issued a statement for general pardon to all Afghans, clarifying they would not seek revenge or harm those who had previously worked for foreign forces.
But, pointing to the Taliban regime of the 1990s, highlighting the Taliban’s ban on girl’s education and other restrictions on women, citing the clear and present danger to their lives those Afghans, who were affiliated with the USA and other Western countries, do not want to return to their native country. In the recent past, top Taliban officials have stated that many skilled workers their country needs, have gone to other countries, particularly the West.
It is notable that America’s Priority 2, or P-2, programme is meant to help relocate at-risk Afghans such as journalists and rights activists otherwise ineligible for the US Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programme, opened to interpreters and others who worked with US troops in Afghanistan— and also expands the opportunity to permanently resettle in the USA to many thousands of Afghans and their family members. The SIV programme authorizes the issuance of SIVs to Afghan nationals who meet certain requirements and were employed in Afghanistan by or on behalf of the US government. It was stated that section 602(b) of the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, as amended, will continue until all visa numbers allocated under the Act are issued.
The US Embassy in Islamabad and US Consulates in Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar are not designated special processing posts for Afghan immigrant visas. There are various Websites such as Pk.US Embassy.Gov/Visas/Immigrant-Visas/, Pk.US Embassy.Gov/Visas/Immigrant-Visa-inquiries/ with the case number and local contact information for further information.
Earlier, following the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Forces, over five million Afghan refugees were granted asylum by Pakistan for over twenty-five years and a sizable number returned to Afghanistan, after the advent of the Karzai government in 2002. The remaining Afghan refugees have often been blamed for providing refuge to terror mongers and time and again, law enforcing agencies have raided their camps.
According to official reports, about 250,000 Afghans fled to Pakistan after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. The government of Pakistan extended amnesty to those fleeing Afghanistan as they had been promised asylum in the USA, Canada and Europe. Alas the west did not live up to its promise. The amnesty expired in December 2022 after which the Pakistan government started cracking down on the Afghan refugees. The Afghan asylum seekers ensconced themselves in makeshift shelters outside the Press Club in Islamabad. They were in full glare of the media and their sad plight was reported by the international media as well but they have been rounded up. Some ended up in Karachi, where they faced incarceration along with their families.
Last year, there was light at the end of the tunnel, when on June 9th, the government of Pakistan issued a directive calling for “safe passage … through land and air routes for vulnerable Afghans destined for third countries on a case-by-case basis, in coordination with the recipient third countries,” an edict that was valid until August 8. Canada has settled more than 16,000 Afghans since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban through special immigration measures for former Canadian Armed Forces or Canadian government employees and their families, as well as vulnerable Afghans. It had promised to bring in 40,000 Afghans to Canada in total through those measures, and encourages others to apply through regular Immigration Canada streams. Many continue to wait for rescue and rehabilitation.
It is time world conscience is aroused towards the plight of the Afghan asylum seekers in Pakistan.
