Mohammad Jamil
PAKISTAN, though not party or signatory to the 1951 Convention and 1976 Protocol, is still bound under the norms of customary international law to address the issue of refugees. However, Pakistan has specific agreements with UNHCR for the protection of refugees, thus it has certain obligations to fulfil. Moreover, international refugee law provides for voluntary repatriation rather than forceful, and the Government of Pakistan is under an obligation to observe the principle of non-refoulement because of its customary legal nature. Anyhow, Pakistan has hosted a large number of Afghan refugees, and despite financial constraints has looked after them for the last 40 years. Pakistan has never forced the Afghan refugees, and its role has been acknowledged by all and sundry. Having that said, it is now the time that the UNHCR and international community come forward and expedite the return of Afghan refugees.
It has to be mentioned that Pakistan still hosts more than 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees holding Proof of Registration cards, and about a million unregistered refugees. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in February that the world must recognise that international support for Pakistan has been minimal compared to its own national efforts for Afghan refugees. He was addressing a conference — jointly organised by the Pakistan government and UN High Commissioner for Refugees — titled “40 years of Afghan Refugees Presence in Pakistan: A New Partnership for Solidarity in Islamabad”. According to Xinhua news agency, Pakistan has renewed its call for repatriation of the Afghan refugees the other day and said the return of over two million refugees should be a part of the peace process in Afghanistan. Pakistan made the gesture while participating in a virtual conference on Afghanistan titled “Strengthening Consensus for Peace” hosted by the government of Afghanistan.
Pakistani participants urged the international community to support a time-bound and well-resourced program for the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland with dignity and honour. Pakistan stressed that the signing of a US-Taliban peace agreement has created an opportunity that must be seized by the Afghan leadership to work together for a comprehensive political settlement. The Pakistani side also reiterated that there was a need for the international community to focus on ensuring an early start and successful completion of Intra-Afghan negotiations and not let these be derailed by spoilers who did not wish to see the return of peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region at large. On 1st July, US Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and had later also met COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa to discuss the progress in peace process in Afghanistan.
FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: “Pakistan has the highest stake in Afghan peace deal, as peaceful and stable Afghanistan is important for peace and stability in the region and beyond”. He welcomed the latest developments including announcements on the formation of negotiating team and establishment of High Council of National Reconciliation. He hoped that the release of prisoners would accelerate intra-Afghan negotiations and conclusion of an agreement between Afghan government and the Taliban. Pakistan has many a time urged the international community for a time-bound and well-resourced roadmap for the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland with dignity and honour, as the latest deadline ended on 30 June. Last year, after the deadline ended on 30 June 2019, Pakistan cabinet had extended the Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to 1.4 million Afghan refugees allowing them to stay until 30 June 2020.
UNHCR Country Representative in Pakistan, Ruvendrini Menikdiwela had then said. “We appreciate the Government decision to extend the PoR cards for twelve months, since this will provide predictability to Afghan refugees who were facing uncertainty and anxiety”. UN Secretary General has more than once appreciated Pakistan’s hosting of millions of Afghan refugees, but using superlatives and acknowledgement of Pakistan’s role by the UN Secretary General for hosting a large number of Afghan refugees would not help Pakistan in resolving the issue. To bring peace in the war-torn country, Afghan government should release the Taliban prisoners as agreed to the US-Taliban deal signed in Doha in February, and should not refuse to release 597 prisoners taking the plea that they are murders and convicts. The Afghan government had to release 5,000 of the group’s prisoners while the Taliban would set 1,000 free ahead of the intra-Afghan talks.
The crisis of Afghan refugees in Pakistan owed its origin to US interference in Afghanistan, firstly in 1979 when it started a proxy war after Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan; and secondly when US and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 events. In both of the above cases, millions of Afghan nationals crossed over to Iran and Pakistan and elsewhere. International community should realize that for more than 40 years, the government and the people of Pakistan have accommodated these refugees who are settled in Tribal Areas and throughout Pakistan. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), hundreds of thousands refugees returned to Afghanistan, and some 1.4 million Afghans are legally residing in Pakistan, having been granted Proof of Registration (PoR) by the UN body.
Having that said, UNHCR should make arrangements to repatriate Afghan refugees as soon as possible to address Pakistan’s security concerns. Officially, the year 2015 was said to mark the end of the agreement that Pakistan had with Afghanistan and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), allowing Afghan refugees to stay in Pakistan. However, on the request of Afghanistan and UNHCR, Pakistan has been giving extensions. The repatriation of Afghan refugees should become part of the settlement and negotiations in intra-Afghan dialogue. Already, two repatriation centre have been opened one at Azakhel area of district Nowshera and the other one in Quetta to register refugees who want to go back to Afghanistan.
—The writer is a senior journalist based in Lahore.
