Pakistan: Treatment by the authorities, and the public, of long-term resident Afghan refugees; whether they have legal recognition by either the government of Pakistan or the UNHCR; and whether they are permitted to work

For information on the legal status accorded refugees in Pakistan please consult PAK23460.E of 30 April 1996.

Two professors stated during separate telephone interviews that they know of no legal status enjoyed by long-term resident Afghan refugees in Pakistan (16 Feb. 1999; 19 Feb. 1999). Both agreed that although Afghan refugees do not have the legal right to work in Pakistan, they are allowed to do so by the government. Both also stated that the longer refugees are in Pakistan the more able they are to integrate into the surrounding community through learning the language and developing contacts with Pakistanis. This integration provides them with a better ability to find work. However, both professors also said that there has recently been growing resentment on the part of Pakistanis at the continued presence of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The Professor of Political Science at Portland University who was in Peshawar last year, said that the refugees are "largely resented but generally tolerated" (16 Jan. 1999), while the Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, who is Uzbek and from Afghanistan, stated that conditions are "increasingly turning into a hostile situation" (19 Feb. 1999).

The Professor of Anthropology said that he had been to Pakistan many times, most recently in 1996. He claimed that the refugees are increasingly targeted as a "source of extraction of money" particularly by police. He said that refugees are constantly checked for their refugee cards and when they are unable to produce them the police, in expectation of a bribe, will threaten them with deportation. This contention is supported by HRW: "Refugees also reported routine harassment by the Pakistani police, who demanded to see the refugees' papers and threatened to arrest them or demanded bribes" (1998, 204). The professor said that richer refugees who have managed to start businesses have also increasingly been targeted for extortion through the kidnapping of their children. The professor claimed that since the refugees have no legal right to own a business, they are vulnerable to extortion by corrupt police. According to him, non-Pushtun refugees are at greater risk of ill-treatment since they are more likely to stand-out visually and through language. He stated that when he last visited Pakistan he was frequently asked by police for identification and when he produced his American passport he received verbal abuse because of his Afghan heritage (19 Feb. 1999). In addition, a report from the Washington-based Women Alliance for Peace and Human Rights says that police and "officials of Afghan refugees commissionerate" have been involved with "coercive and criminal acts" involving Afghan refugees (Dawn 12 Nov. 1998).

In its annual report, HRW describes an alleged incident involving the Pakistan Commissonerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) and Afghan refugees:

On April 6, two Afghan women wee reportedly raped after being abducted from a bus traveling from Nasir Bagh refugee camp to Peshawar. The driver was arrested but was released after he apparently paid a bribe to the police. Complaints from the refugees prompted CAR to investigate the case, and the driver was reportedly rearrested (1998, 204).

The Professor of Political Science said that the refugees "are generally allowed to work but are forbidden to own businesses and property." He said that there are periodic sweeps by the authorities of Afghan pushcarts and stalls and that increasingly the public sees the refugees as a burden and that they have become "a hot political issue." However, he said that the refugees are "largely treated okay by Pakistanis" and that the government "deserves credit" for setting up the camps and committing resources. This professor claimed that the bad things that happen to Afghan refugees are usually done by other Afghans (16 Feb. 1999).

In its "Country Report" for Afghanistan the U.S. Committee for Refugees states:

In 1996, UNHCR conducted a census to determine how many Afghan refugees remained in Pakistan. It determined that some 1.2 million refugees, including previously unregistered refugees, were living in the Afghan refugee villages in Pakistan. Approximately two-thirds of them had been living in the refugee villages for at least a decade.

The refugee villages appear much like other rural villages in Pakistan. Refugees mostly live in self-constructed mud houses. They are able to move freely in Pakistan and work wherever they can find jobs. Most find at least subsistence work in the local economy....

Refugees stay in Pakistan because they have carved out reasonable and predictable lives, at least compared to what they could expect in Afghanistan, humanitarian workers say. Many refugees maintain a foothold in both countries by living in Pakistan while hiring tenant farmers to work their land in Afghanistan....

The Peshawar Development Authority has said it wants refugees living in Nasir Bagh to vacate the camp. Nasir Bagh has been home to 60,000 refugees for 18 years. However, it is located on prime land that the authority wants to develop. UNHCR is trying to forestall the move until a replacement site can be prepared.

Repatriation to Afghanistan from Pakistan in 1997 declined for the second consecutive year. UNHCR's initial repatriation target figure for 1997 was 250,000 refugees. Budget constraints reduced that figure later in the year to a revised target of 100,000. The government differed with UNHCR over how many refugees should be targeted for return in 1997, but did not threaten forced repatriation (1998).

On 8 January 1997 the Pakistani representative to the Executive Committee of the High Commissioners' Programme offered some general comments on Afghan refugees:

Pakistan was at present host to 1.4 million Afghan refugees, who constituted one of the oldest refugee problems in the world.  Pakistan had taken them in and provided them with assistance from its own resources, and had also allowed them considerable freedom of movement inside Pakistan.  When assistance from the international community had been abruptly ended, Pakistan had not taken the easy way out offered by forced repatriation, but had continued to provide for them thereby assuming what was an extremely heavy burden for a developing country.

Pakistan believed that it was essential to restore peace in Afghanistan, as the large-scale movements of refugees had given rise to massive administrative, economic and social problems.  Tension had developed in some provinces whose demographic profile had been changed by the size of the refugee population.  The protracted presence of millions of Afghan refugees and their numerous livestock had caused considerable ecological damage, whose cost UNDP had already estimated at over US$ 208 million in 1990.  Pakistan believed that voluntary repatriation followed by rapid reintegration was the most logical solution to the refugee problem.

For further information on the general treatment of refugees please consult PAK29505.E of 15 June 1998.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Dawn [Karachi]. 12 November 1998. Ahmad Hassan. "Afghan Camps Hunting Ground for Human Organs." [Internet] [Accessed 12 Nov. 1998]

Human Rights Watch (HRW). 1998. Human Rights Watch World Report 1999. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Indiana University. 19 February 1999. Telephone interview with Professor of Anthropology.

Portland University. 16 February 1999. Telephone interview with Professor of Political Science.

UNHCR, Executive Committee of the High Commissioners' Programme. 8 January 1997. "Summary Record of the 509th Meeting." Sharenet.

US Committee for Refugees. 1998. "Country Report: Pakistan." [Internet] [Accessed 17 Feb. 1999]