UNHCR suspends screening of refugees

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, SEPT. 1. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has suspended the programme for screening Afghan refugees in two camps near Peshawar in protest against the controversial decision of the military government to deport 132 Afghan refugees.

While the UNHCR maintains that the deported refugees have been living in the camps, the Pakistan Government has contested the claim. The Musharraf Government not only considers the deported refugees as new arrivals in search of livelihood but has also made it clear that Pakistan is in no position to absorb any more refugees from Afghanistan.

For several months now, the UNHCR and the Pakistan Government have been engaged in a tug of war over the influx of the refugees. While the UNHCR has been urging the Musharraf Government to allow the free flow of refugees from across the border, Pakistan has time and again said that given the tight resource position, it is no position to play host to more refugees.

What has made the controversy murkier is the charge, though not levelled by the UNHCR, that the majority of those being deported are from the areas under the control of the opposition in the northern areas and belong to the minority community.

There are an estimated 2.5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and acknowledgely it is the largest concentration of refugees in a single country.

Over two million of these refugees have been living in Pakistan for over two decades now and their presence has triggered socio- economic problems, particularly in the provinces of the North- West Frontier Province and Baluchistan. The conflict of interest between the refugees and the local population in cities like Peshawar forced the NWFP Government last year to ask Islamabad to close down the borders to prevent further flow of Afghan migrants.

It also announced a decision to deport the new arrivals since mid-2000. Most of them are settled in two of the illegal camps, which have attracted world attention thanks to the squalid conditions there.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Foreign Office on Friday maintained that Pakistan was not throwing out any Afghan refugees who were in the Jallozai or Shamshattoo camps, where a joint screening by a UNHCR team and Pakistan Refugee Commissionerate officials is taking place. However, he asserted that Pakistan was not in a position to absorb any more refugees who are mostly economic migrants. ``We have repeatedly requested the United Nations and also other international organisations that relief should be provided to displaced Afghans inside Afghanistan.

Relief should be provided to areas controlled by the Northern Alliance and areas controlled by the Taliban Government so that these displaced Afghans do not have to leave Afghanistan in search of food and other relief assistance,'' he said.

Referring to Australia's decision to refuse permission to dock to a ship carrying about 400 Afghan asylum-seekers, the spokesman said the international community should appreciate Pakistan's viewpoint.

``If a country the size of a continent cannot absorb a ship of refugees, how can Pakistan be faulted for its inability to accommodate endless number of economic migrants.''

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Section  : International
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