Afghan refugees in Pakistan: “Time for a dignified return”

The advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan is also causing concern in the neighboring country. Pakistan does not want to accept any more refugees – and prefers to get rid of those who are already there.

Haji Bahadur and his family fled Afghanistan 40 years ago. The Soviet Army had marched into his home country at that time. Since then he has lived in a Pakistani refugee camp in Tarnol. It is located around 200 kilometers from the Afghan border. Bahadur likes life in Pakistan. “We have rights here. There are enough of everything. And what we need is easy to get,” he says.

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ARD studio New Delhi

Haji Bahadur is one of approximately 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. Unofficially, it should be more than two million. But Pakistan has long wanted these people to go back to their homeland. “We keep saying that Afghan refugees are our brothers and sisters. But the time has come for a dignified return,” said Pakistani national security advisor Mooed Yusuf.

A fence is being erected

Threats like these are nothing new to Afghan refugees. However, they are particularly concerned right now. “There is a war raging in Afghanistan. The Taliban are gaining new districts every day. For the people the idea that they should return to this country is bad,” says the Pakistani journalist Tahir Khan, who is in constant contact with the refugees.

There is no concrete plan for how the Afghan refugees are to be brought back to their homeland, says Khan. And yet the signs are always pointing to isolation from the neighboring state. The Pakistani government has already stressed several times that no more Afghan refugees should be admitted. A fence is currently being built on the entire outer border with Afghanistan.

Bomb attack reignites debate

“If more and more Afghans are now fleeing the Taliban and seeking protection with us, we must urgently ensure that they stay in camps specially set up on the border,” says Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Hussain Chaudhry. It should be avoided at all costs that more Afghan refugees come to Pakistani cities.

The current debate was triggered by a bomb attack that occurred a few weeks ago in the Pakistani city of Lahore. An Afghan citizen is said to have been involved. “An incident that came in handy for the Pakistani government in this case. It was able to put the expulsion of the Afghan refugees back on the political agenda,” says Tahir Khan.

Taliban among the refugees?

There is, however, another reason why the Pakistani government is extremely skeptical of Afghan refugees. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan suspect that there are also Taliban supporters among the refugees who use their good connections in the country. “Your families are still living in Pakistan. So they have an infrastructure that they can use. We want this to change at all costs,” says Farid Mamundzay, Afghan ambassador to India.

In Pakistan, there is great fear that the violence that is currently raging in Afghanistan would also spread to the neighboring country, says journalist Tahir Khan. “The government is also concerned about its image. You don’t want to be seen by the international community as the country that protects the Taliban,” he said.

Haji Bahadur hopes the Pakistani government will show mercy. That he and his family will not be expelled from Pakistan. “The government has the power,” he says. “If they let us stay, we’ll be happy. And if they want us to go back to Afghanistan, then we’ll be forced to do that too.”