Refugee support

A new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claims that over 2.4 million refugees will require resettlement in 2024, a 20 per cent increase from the current year. Pakistan, already home to more than three million Afghan refugees, will be one of the countries most impacted by this increase. According to the report, around 134,000 refugees, largely from Afghanistan, will require resettlement in Pakistan next year. Pakistan is not a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, but the UNHCR report deems its policies towards Afghan refugees to be in accordance with international standards and human rights obligations. Despite the lack of a national asylum system, Pakistan is said to largely respect the right to asylum and the principle of non-refoulement, which established that nations receiving asylum-seekers cannot return them to a country where they are likely to be persecuted. However, the added burden of 134,000 refugees cannot be underestimated.

Over the past year, Pakistan has only narrowly avoided default, faced catastrophic flooding which displaced millions, many of whom are yet to be rehabilitated, and has faced political turmoil. These events have handicapped the state’s ability to look after the needs of its own citizens, let alone refugees. Although this does not excuse us from our obligations to refugees, it underscores the need countries like Pakistan have for international assistance in order to cope with the growing flow of refugees, both in terms of direct financial assistance to host refugees and in terms of developed countries taking on a greater share of refugees.

According to UNHCR data, 38 per cent of the world’s refugees are hosted by just five countries, four of which, including Pakistan, are developing countries. Meanwhile, recent years have witnessed a hardening of anti-immigrant and refugee sentiment in many advanced and wealthy countries, particularly in the West. Right-wing governments in nations like Italy and the UK are working to make their countries less accessible to those displaced by conflict, natural disaster or economic deprivation. Simply paying poorer countries more money to host refugees and asylum-seekers is not enough; wealthier and more stable countries have to accommodate more refugees. This not only helps relieve some of the burden faced by countries like Pakistan but it is also better for refugees, particularly those unable to support themselves, as they are more likely to receive the help they need in better-resourced countries. The international community needs to not only more equitably share the burden of taking care of refugees, it also has to work towards ensuring the flood of refugees is reduced. This can only be done by ending the conflicts that force so many to flee their homes. Meanwhile, Pakistan must remember that for far too long have refugees here been demonized and unfairly scapegoated for our drugs and gun problems. Let’s not forget that no one leaves their homes unless they have no other choice but to.