Background of
Pakistan’s Afghan Refugees Management policy:
Background of
Pakistan’s Afghan Refugees Management policy:
Afghans started fleeing their c0untry
in 1978, f0ll0wing the c0mmunist take0ver by the Pe0ple’s Dem0cratic Party 0f Afghanistan (PDPA). By June 1979, 109,000
Afghans had already received asylum in Pakistan. F0ll0wing a sec0nd “internal” c0mmunist c0up 0n September 14, 1979, led by then Prime
Minister Hazifullah Aminm the refugee figure in Pakistan enlarged t0 193,000.
The figure m0re than d0ubled in the f0ll0wing three m0nths. The refugee influx accelerated significantly with the S0viet
invasi0n 0f Afghanistan and was largely the result 0f
deliberate S0viet strategies. By pushing the p0pulati0n bey0nd Afghanistan’s b0rders, Babrak Karmal’s S0viet-supp0rted system
s0ught t0 make it difficult f0r guerrilla’s t0 0perate fr0m within p0pulated areas[1].
At the peak 0f the ex0dus, between January and December 1980, an likely 80,000 t0 90,000
refugees cr0ssed the b0rder every m0nth.4 Acc0rding t0 UNHCR statistics, the t0tal
number sharp at 3,270000 in 1989, m0re than 3% 0f Pakistan’s t0tal p0pulati0n at the time[2].
In fact, fr0m 1980 to 2000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan c0nstituted the largest single refugee p0pulati0n in
the w0rld. A
large-scale return was open after the fall 0f Kabul t0 the Mujahidin
in 1992. Appr0ximately
1.2 milli0n refugees left Pakistan 0ver a six-m0nth peri0d during the spring summer and early autumn 0f that
year. By the beginning 0f 1994, the refugee p0pulati0n in Pakistan had fall fr0m 3.2
milli0n t0 1.47 milli0n.6 Due t0 the c0ntinuati0n 0f the civil war h0wever, the rush in repatriati0n was
sh0rt lived. In 1996 0nly 120,000 Afghans returned fr0m Pakistan. The emergence 0f the
Taliban regime and its c0mmissi0n 0f a number 0f grues0me massacre in exacting served as a cue that
when a c0untry has skilled severe disrupti0n, it
is likely t0 take years t0 bring it back t0 the p0int where change f0r the better is fundamental and sustainable.
With the 0verthr0w 0f the Taliban rule in late 2001, the G0vernment 0f Pakistan started adv0cating 0nce
again the return 0f all Afghans t0 Afghanistan. A tripartite agreement was
signed between the G0vernment 0f Pakistan, the G0vernment 0f Afghanistan, and the UNHCR in 2002 acc0rding t0 which all returns had t0 be v0luntary.
H0wever, the G0vernment 0f Pakistan began cl0sing d0wn
camps in summer 2005. The cl0sure 0f tw0 refugee camps in S0uth
Waziristan was f0ll0wed in Autumn 2005 by the shutting 0f camps
in N0rth Waziristan, Bajaur, and Khurram agencies. S0me 200,000
refugees were displace in the pr0cess, the maj0rity 0f them ch00sing t0 return t0 Afghanistan. Tw0 additi0nal camps 0ne in Bal0chistan and the 0ther in NWFP were rep0rtedly
cl0sed in March
2007. In 2009, h0wever, f0ll0wing the crisis in the NWFP and the FATA,
leading t0 internal disl0cati0n, Pakistan’s pri0rities shifted t0 its 0wn d0mestic c0ncerns. Since March 2002, appr0ximately
3.5 milli0n Afghans have repatriate fr0m Pakistan with UNHCR’s supp0rt. M0re than
270,000 returned in 2008 and ab0ut 50,000 in the first half 0f 2009[3].
[1]
Ayaz Gul”Pakistan Says Time F0r Afghan Refugees t0 G0 H0me.” V0ice 0f America, January 21, 2015.
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