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print versionPAKISTAN:
Afghan refugees in Pakistan fear deportation
More than 1.6 million people who fled Afghan conflict have been given a June 30 deadline to leave Pakistan.
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia/2013/06/2013610114913232746.html
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Home is where the documents say: Afghan refugees repatriation deadline likely to get further extension
By Umer Farooq
Published: June 4, 2013
PESHAWAR:
The Government of Pakistan (GoP) is likely to extend the deadline for the repatriation of Afghan refugees to December 31, 2013, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Around 1.6 million registered and 0.6 million unregistered Afghan refugees are currently living in Pakistan. Approximately 60% of the refugees are living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Of these, 80% live in camps whereas the rest live in rented houses.
Officials of the K-P Home and Tribal Affairs Department said the repatriation deadline was expected to be extended as the matter was under discussion at relevant quarters. December 31, 2012 was the initial deadline set by the GoP. This was later extended to June 30 by former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf following the Pakistan, Afghanistan and UN Refugee Agency tripartite agreement regarding Afghan refugees.
“Yes the deadline for their (Afghan refugees) repatriation is still June 30, but correspondence with the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) is underway and it is expected the deadline will be extended to December 31, 2013,†said an official of the home department while requesting anonymity.
The official explained a strategy – yet to be given final shape – was being devised to give some Afghans living in Pakistan refugee status. The qualification of those eligible for the said status is just one of the aspects of the policy under discussion.
“There will also be debate on whether those seeking asylum can be given refugee status,†added the official. However, the policy is yet to be finalised or approved, he added.
Home department officials said more than 35 camps had been set up for refugees. But unlike in other countries, Afghan refugees can live in or outside the camps.
Officials of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) told The Express Tribune a large number of families had migrated voluntarily to Afghanistan from different parts of K-P. Despite the security situation in Afghanistan, people are still willing to leave for their native areas, noted a CAR official. “We do not force them to leave but a number of families have willingly left for their respective areas.â€
On December 1, 2012, the government started grouping Afghan refugees. Moreover, a letter was sent to the Nowshera district management to immediately set up a refugee camp for all those refugees residing outside K-P, specifically in Punjab and Sindh. A senior CAR official confirmed the move was a step to group scattered Afghan families together so it would be easier for authorities to document and repatriate them.
INDIA:
Once again, fear of the unknown sets off search for safe havens
by Sahana Basavapatna and Roshni Shanker
As the 2014 U.S pullout from Afghanistan draws closer, New Delhi needs a plan to deal with a fresh wave of refugees
In the courtyard of a New Delhi hospital, Hanifa, an Afghan refugee, walks around offering her services as an interpreter to her countrymen who are waiting for treatment. She is the sole breadwinner for a family of six. Being an interpreter is her only source of income.
Hanifa’s life in India is starkly different from that back at home where she worked in the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs and was a prominent women’s rights activist. In 2010 she received death threats from the Taliban because it considered her to be a supporter of the western forces and thus an infidel. She was forced to flee to India in 2011 and was recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a refugee.
Taliban threat
Though survival in India is challenging due to the lack of access to employment and uneven integration in society, the prospect of her returning home is unthinkable given the looming uncertainty of Afghanistan’s fate after the withdrawal of international troops in 2014.
“We hear of attacks happening everyday even in cities like Kabul. The threat of the Taliban has only grown stronger. We are definitely headed for a civil war after the withdrawal,†says Mahmoud Sayeed, another Afghan refugee who fled to New Delhi in 2006 to avoid blasphemy charges after he converted to Christianity. For many Afghans like Sayeed, much like their past, the future too appears to be riddled with conflict and fear.
While India works towards strengthening its strategic partnership with Afghanistan, there has been no clear policy as yet on dealing with increasing numbers of asylum-seekers from the war-torn nation. In anticipation of the worsening security conditions in their country, many Afghans are scrambling to find asylum in a country they can call home. In the South Asian region, India continues to be one such destination, apart from Pakistan and Iran. While Pakistan has been hosting Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion, it has now set June 2013 as the deadline for the repatriation of around 1.66 million Afghan refugees. Similarly, the Iranian government, hit by a faltering economy, is also pushing for their return.
UNHCR led
An estimated 25,000 Afghans are believed to be living in India — a mix of traders, medical tourists, students and those fleeing threats to life and persecution (i.e. refugees). Asylum-seekers in India typically include people who face threats from the Taliban, interpreters working for the international presence, journalists, single women, including activists and those facing forced marriage threats, former government officials, etc. According to UNHCR estimates, it has recognised close to 10,000 Afghans as refugees.
With Indian consular presence in five districts in Afghanistan, the process of getting an Indian visa has become relatively simple and usually takes two to three days. In the last four months, the number of Afghans seeking asylum is believed to have increased.
India has traditionally allowed and tacitly recognised refugees by allowing the UNHCR to conduct refugee status determination and recognising its “Refugee Card.†Thus, most Afghans view India as the only hope to seek a better life. Living as refugees in cities like New Delhi, is however, daunting. “Many Afghans are coming to India thinking that they can seek asylum here if conditions in Afghanistan deteriorate after 2014. However, once they come to India, they realise that life is very tough as a refugee, especially given that you cannot work here,†says Sayeed. Most refugees work in the informal sector, characterised by a lack of social security, low wages and exploitation. But qualified Afghan refugees — and these are many, including doctors, human rights activists, journalists, etc — who aren’t able to find work that fits their qualifications, find it frustrating. While some accept the situation, others return despite the continued threat to their lives, betting on the remote possibility of a stable Afghanistan post-2014.
Long-term visas
In June 2012, the Indian government agreed to issue long-term visas to refugees recognised by the UNHCR. Significant in the Indian context, this overtly recognises refugees and enables them to work in the formal/private sector, which is a right under international refugee law. Further, in what appears to be an attempt at maintaining and developing its traditionally friendly relations with Afghanistan, the Ministry of External Affairs indicated in the Lok Sabha in February this year that “longer duration stay†applications of Afghan nationals entering India with valid travel documents will be considered. Together, these developments hold promise for Afghan asylum-seekers, though how these policies will be implemented needs to be seen. In light of the imminent possibility of an increased influx of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan after 2014, a clear refugee policy and implementation strategy would be in India’s best interest.
(Sahana Basavapatna and Roshni Shanker are founders of Ara Legal Initiative, a legal aid centre for refugees in New Delhi. All names have been changed to protect the identity of the person. June 20 was World Refugee Day.)
SEE ALSO RELATED MATERIAL:
The Daily Star, June 20, 2013
World Refugee Day 2013
Moving towards a normative refugee regime
Nirbhay Prakash
THE United Nations today commemorates 61 years of refugee protection in the world. The 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees was adopted to protect the refugees displaced as a result of the Second World War. The temporal and geographical limitation of the 1951 convention was removed with the adoption of the 1967 Protocol which brought the refugees originating in any part of the world under the protection net of the international refugee regime.
Refugee protection in South Asia has posed an unprecedented challenge to international law in general and the international refugee law in particular as South Asia has become a flash point of human displacement owing to reasons beyond the mandate of UNHCR. Since 1947, more than 30-40 million people have crossed the borders of South Asian states in search of refuge and almost every country has produced and/or received refugees. In a conference deliberating on refugee protection in South Asia, Tapan Kumar [Bose], Secretary General of The South Asian Forum for Human Rights opined: “When you have no law, everything becomes arbitrary.†Precisely this has been the overall situation in all the South Asian countries which have been criticised vehemently for inadequacy of law on one of the greatest problems facing the world.
The 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees provide a basic framework of refugee protection in the world. They provide rights for asylum seekers and a set of obligations for member states to follow. Its wide acceptability has transformed its position from just being a convention to be treated as ‘Bill of rights for refugees’ and sometimes even adorned with the status of ‘Magna Carta’ for refugees. Despite its wide acceptability, none of the South Asian countries except Afghanistan are party to the existing regime. It is amazing to note that a region which holds one fifth of the world population does not have any binding standards and norms for refugee determination and protection. [. . . ].
FULL TEXT AT: http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/moving-towards-a-normative-refugee-regime/
