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epatriation. While voluntary repatriation is the preferred durable solution for
refugees worldwide, it certainly is not the only one. Other acknowledged
durable solutions include integration in the host country, or resettlement. Few
Afghans in Pakistan had a shot at either of the two options or at a more
permanent form of relief in the short term.
The incentive
Under the UNHCR’s repatriation assistance programme, registered refugees
coming back to Afghanistan received an average of US $150 per person to
cover transportation as well as the initial cost of settling back home. In late
October, UNHCR boosted incentives for registered Afghans returning to their
homeland from Pakistan during the months of November and December. The
enhanced return package included non-food items (jerry cans, heavy duty
plastic buckets, soap, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, thermal fleece blankets,
kitchen sets, plastic tarpaulins, quilts and sanitary cloth) and free transportation
from the Voluntary Repatriation Centre (VRC) in Pakistan to the Encashment
Centres in Afghanistan. But despite the incentives and pressure to return, the
vast majority remained reluctant to return because of conflict and poverty. By
repatriating, registered Afghans gave up their protected status in Pakistan. If
they returned to Pakistan without a visa afterwards they were to be treated as
illegal immigrants, in the same manner as around one million unregistered
Afghans in Pakistan. Some Afghans were reported to have told media
organisations that they did not want to risk whatever little they had in Pakistan
for an uncertain future in Afghanistan. Other stated that they would stay in
Pakistan until the government expelled them.
‘The undesirables’
The public sentiment seemed to have turned against the Afghans’ continued
presence in Pakistan and amid rising lawlessness and instances of terrorism
demands grew for Afghans’ return, particularly from communities and from
authorities in areas where large Afghan settlements were located. Instances of
demonisation of the Afghans as a threat to national security continued to
surface. The demand for repatriation of the Afghans was not always because
of perceived involvement of Afghans in acts of terrorism and crime, but also
amid reports of any mistreatment or violence that Pakistani workers faced in
Afghanistan at the hands of the Afghan authorities.
A large number of residents in Mansehra district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
held a demonstration in December to demand that the Afghan refugees should
be repatriated immediately. They said that while Pakistan had offered shelter
to millions of Afghan refugees, Pakistani labourers were being killed in
Afghanistan. They accused the Afghans of occupying businesses and not
paying taxes. They demanded that the government should restrict the refugees
to their camps until the schedule for their departure was announced. They
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State of Human Rights in 2012