Daily Times

Pakistan’s Foreign Office, last week, said that some of the Afghan refugee camps in the country had become a serious security risk, as terrorists and militants were hiding there. The statement further asserted that unregulated cross-border movement of refugees also provides an opportunity to terrorists to move freely between the two countries. On the other hand, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has dismissed Pakistan’s assertions that Afghan refugees have become a source of terrorism in the country, urging the host government “not to adopt rushed solutions” for sending the displaced population back to Afghanistan.

Pakistan has been hosting three million Afghan refugees for the last three and a half decades, and the recent demand of Islamabad for the repatriation of the Afghan refugees is due to the alleged involvement of a few Afghan nationals in terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Nevertheless, not to be forgotten here is the fact that Pakistan is also responsible for the present plight of the Afghan nation. By blaming Afghans for all ills, Pakistan’s security agencies and other institutions cannot hide their own deficiencies and scant attention that was paid to rehabilitation of Afghanistan post-Soviet withdrawal that culminated in 1989. Pakistan cannot absolve its institutions of all responsibilities by making refugees as scapegoats. Why did our security agencies use the Afghan Taliban to achieve regional interests while declaring them — unofficially — strategic assets?

Not only Pakistan’s security agencies, the intelligence agencies of Afghanistan and India have also started the dirty game of indulging in proxy wars. Ultimately, it is citizens of a victim state who becoming casualties of these regional proxy conflicts. Countless Afghans fled violence, persecution, ethnic cleansing and genocide as a result of regional proxy conflicts in Afghanistan throughout the 1990s. In order to appease the US, Pakistani rulers — both civil and military — became involved in the Afghan war to destabilise the pro-Soviet government of People Democratic Party in Afghanistan by aiding and sending Pashtun-armed guerillas there. This military misadventure resulted in the mass exodus of Afghans into Pakistan as refugees, and now Pakistan is reaping the harvest sown by its past rulers.

Afghan refuges live as an alien community despite being registered displaced people who merely seek shelter in Pakistan, their neighbouring country. Many among them have been living here for many years, have set up their businesses, and are contributing to the economy of Pakistan positively. On one hand, Pakistan urges the western world to accept refugees, and on the other, the state is meting out such treatment to Afghan refugees. It is sheer injustice to punish all for crimes committed by a few. Afghans should return to their homes, as that would be any refugee’s biggest, rather only dream, but before that happens those states that are responsible for the present plight of Afghans, must make efforts to bring peace in Afghanistan.

There is no argument: all Afghan refugees cannot and must not be declared terrorists. Living away from homes they lost as the result of a long, bloody war; forced to live in abysmal conditions in the host country; living like pariahs without an real governmental effort to make integration in society a tangible reality by giving them proper jobs and schooling for children; and existing without hope watching their beloved homeland being ravaged by decades of war, Afghan refuges deserve empathy and kindness, not derision, mistrust and charity. The players may have changed, but Afghanistan remains a battlefield exploited by different powers — internal and external — for their agendas of hegemony and geostrategic muscle-play. Afghan refugees must be given respect and security with full assurance of a safe return home. But where is that home? Who will guarantee that on their return the Afghan refugees would have a home to go to? NATO? The US? US allies? India? Pakistan? Or the Afghan government? *