ncertainty and apprehensions stalk Afghan refugees living in Pakistan after the government announced a crackdown against illegal aliens. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, some of the Afghan refugees, even those with proper documents, have also complained of being harried by the police.

In Islamabad, the Afghan refugee community mostly comprises individuals who arrived in Pakistan after securing visas following the fall of Kabul in August 2021. They include former government and military officials, journalists, artists and women’s rights activists. Most of them are awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications to various Western diplomatic missions. Many of them have now expired Pakistani visas.

“I worked as a policewoman in Kabul. We received special training to fight against the Taliban. How can I go back? Certain death awaits me if I re-enter Afghanistan. Many of my relatives have moved on to Iran. Nobody can imagine how I survived after Kabul fell and managed to enter Pakistan,” a refugee woman, now living in Islamabad, tells The News on Sunday.

In Peshawar, many Afghan citizens having permits of residence keep themselves to their houses fearing questioning by local police.

“Whenever the government says something negative about Afghan refugees, the local police starts harassing us,” said Abdul Jabbar, a PoR card holder, in Peshawar.

In June, the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions issued a letter directing law enforcement agencies not to harass refugees possessing the PoR cards and Afghan Citizenship Cards until a the federal government made a decision with regard to them. On October 11, the ministry again directed the authorities to refrain from harassing or arresting registered Afghan refugees holding proof of registration. According to the notification issued by the ministry, the relevant departments and agencies have been directed to refrain from taking any action against registered Afghan refugees holding valid proof of registration. The notification says that instructions had already been conveyed to all stakeholders and provincial governments that Afghan refugees with valid proof of registration and Afghan Citizen Card were allowed to reside temporarily in Pakistan and could only be repatriated if they agreed to it.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also taken notice of the issue. “Their status as unauthorised refugees does not mean that they are not entitled to protection. Nor should they bear the brunt of Pakistan’s security concerns. The next government must seriously consider signing the 1951 Geneva Convention and its 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees,” the HRCP said in a statement.

According to various estimates, more than 95 per cent of the refugees in Pakistan are Afghan citizens.

The first wave of refugees had started pouring into Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Eventually, more than three million Afghans fled to Pakistan. In 2001, when the United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, another influx of refugees started. Over the years, many of them returned home. However, a majority of them are still here. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, many have assimilated into the local populations.

On October 7, the United Nations agencies for migration and refugee protection had jointly appealed to Pakistan to suspend plans to deport undocumented Afghan immigrants, warning that they could be at imminent risk in Afghanistan.”Afghanistan is going through a severe humanitarian crisis with several human rights challenges, particularly for women and girls,” said a joint statement from the International Organisation for Migration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Such plans will have serious implications for all who have been forced to leave the country and may face serious protection risks upon return,” the agencies stated.

The first wave of refugees had started pouring into Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Eventually, more than three million Afghans fled to Pakistan. In 2001, when the United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, another influx of refugees started. Over the years, many of them have returned home. However, a majority of them are still here. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, many have assimilated into the local populations.

The UNHCR says there are 1.3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, 50 percent of whom are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 24 percent in Balochistan.

Pakistan shares a 2,600 kilometre border with Afghanistan. While Pakistan has fenced some sections of its border with Afghanistan, the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has been making incursions from many areas. Recently, it was found that many Afghan citizens had participated into terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Law enforcement agencies claim that they have strong evidence linking Afghan nationals with recent attacks. However, most of the Afghan refugees have nothing to do with terrorism. Following the attacks, Pakistan sent a high-level delegation to Kabul, the second such visit this year, and urged the Afghan Taliban to improve border controls.

In the Hangu district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, two suicide bombers attacked a mosque. According to forensic reports, the attackers were not Pakistani citizens. Further investigations revealed that they were from Afghanistan. Citing a rising number of violent attacks, Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti recently said that “14 out of 24” suicide bombings this year had been carried out by Afghan people.

“We have given them a November 1 deadline,” Bugti says, adding that there are nearly 4.4 million Aghan refugees in the country, nearly 1.7 million of them illegally.

“I am a musician. Where can I go? I had no enmity with the Taliban but they do not tolerate music. I have no other means of livelihood. There are hundreds of musicians and artists like me. For obvious reasons, none of us can go back. Our case is entirely different. It is about our profession. A majority of the artistes are illiterate. What will we do? The international community too is silent,” says Zar Wali, a refugee artist.

Many Afghan refugees, including women and children, face psychological problems like depression and anxiety. They are in state of deep trauma. Recently, Maryam Sadaat, an Afghan asylum seeker in Islamabad, committed suicide.

“We have been in shock after Kabul fell and our lives changed. If the situation persists, there will be more incidents like Maryam’s. We are in state of trauma. On the other hand, the international community has forgotten about us due to other pressing issues. In some ways, they are responsible for our current situation. They must tell us where should we go,” Najeebullah, an Afghan social worker, says.

Sooner or later, the international community will have to address the issue. If their concerns are not addressed and arrangements are not made for their future, human smuggling to destinations to the Western world will increase.

The writer is a Peshawar-based journalist, researcher and trainer. He also works for the digital media platform The Khorasan Diary