Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Coming hard on the international community and registering protest with the visiting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official for unevenly treatment meted to Pakistan with respect to assistance for Afghan refugees, a federal minister made it clear that the patience level of the host country has reached its threshold and refugees must voluntarily leave the country.

This was stated by Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), Lieutenant General Abdul Qadir Baloch (R) while addressing an event "High Level Panel discussion on "New Approaches to Protracted Refugee Situations & Equitable Responsibility Sharing". "For the last two decade, international community has withdrawn its support to Pakistan and currently contributing half a dollar for health and one dollar for education as far as the refugees are concerned," he said.

The minister said that earlier, we were promised $600 million for three years by the international community and now after the passage of six years only $175 million were disbursed and we are supposed to take care of 30 districts from Chitral to Chaghi.

There are around 3 million refugees in Pakistan and around 258 thousands are doing jobs in Pakistan this is the contribution they are making and it should not be taken for granted, said the Minister, adding that what has been done for the refugees in Europe today, the Syrians being there, and the international community is contributing many times more than they are contributing to Pakistan. Why this unevenly treatment is being meted to Pakistan. What is the fault of Pakistan? Our only fault was that we are neighbours and we welcome them. We respect them. We want their volunteer repatriation and will not force them to leave. But we urge the international community to realise its responsibility, the minister added.

He said that Pakistan is hosting 1.5 million documented and 1.5 million undocumented Afghan refugees for last 37 years. This is the time for volunteer repatriations and international community must cooperate in this regard. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said that refugees are not the cause of insecurity. They are a consequence of insecurity. However, he admitted that international community must extend support to the host country.

The participants of the panel discussion agreed that a time bound action plan agreed by Afghanistan, UN and the international community for the safe return of the Afghan population needed to be chalked out. In recent years, displacement has reached unprecedented levels. The new and ongoing humanitarian emergencies have dominated the attention and engagement of the international community. However, the changing scale and scope of global forced displacement has compelled the international community to revisit some of the traditional approaches to solutions to the protracted crises.

While recognising the critical need for continued support for emerging crises, the panel emphasised the need for greater and more equitable responsibility-sharing with countries that have been hosting refugees for long periods of time, often with limited or no sustainable solutions in sight and diminishing international support.

The upcoming UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Refugees and Migrants will seek to further advance this discourse through the adoption of the Global Compact on Responsibility-Sharing for Refugees in September 2016. The government and people of Pakistan, with the support of the international community have been generously hosting Afghan refugees for nearly forty years. While more than 3.9 million have been returned back to Afghanistan since 2002 under the largest voluntary return program in UNHCR's history, 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees still reside in the country, constituting 10.5 per cent of the global total and simultaneously the world's largest protracted refugee population. In addition, the Government of Pakistan estimates that there are some 1.5 million undocumented Afghans on its territory.

The panellist maintained that with voluntary returns at a historical low in 2016, prospects for exponential voluntary repatriation remain challenging given the prevailing ground realities in Afghanistan (ie security constraints, limited absorption capacity and opportunities for sustainable reintegration). As such, the international community will need to remain committed to supporting Afghanistan in its nation building process and align additional resources in line with the Government of Afghanistan's Comprehensive Voluntary Repatriation and Reintegration Strategy to create conditions conducive for voluntary returns through community-based interventions aimed at enabling the sustainable reintegration of returnees.

Over the past four decades, Pakistan has significantly contributed to the global public good and accumulated a wealth of experience in addressing both situations of mass refugee influx and protracted displacement. It is therefore in a unique position to contribute to the evolving global thinking on new approaches. As such, the events in 2016 offer unprecedented momentum to identify new solutions to old problems and to turn some of the pressing challenges of protracted displacement into opportunities for sustainable development. In this context, greater responsibility sharing represents not only a manifestation of international solidarity, but also a collective investment in stability, prosperity and growth with benefits for all.

The high-level panel sought to inspire a thought-provoking discussion on the emerging global thinking on new approaches to forced displacement in the context of Pakistan – host to the world's largest protracted refugee population. Based on their unique perspectives and diverse experience, the panel members identified the main challenges faced by the host country/communities and draw key lessons learned that could inform the new approaches to the management and solutions to protracted forced displacement.