Barkat Ullah
Pakistan is located in a geo-strategic spot which presents both opportunities and challenges at a time to it. For instance, it not only works as a bridge between South Asia and West Asia, but also possesses economic and geo-political importance for several major states such as China, US and Russia etc. At the same time along with opportunities, Pakistan faces a number of challenges due to its geographic location. For example, Historical tensions with India, insecurity on Iranian Border and Saudi-Iran strained ties are some of the major challenges in this regard. Likewise, it shares lengthy border with the war-suffered Afghanistan; a country which has been victimized by foreign invaders for constant four decades. The foreign invasions and ethnic conflicts within Afghanistan have triggered the issues of refugees over the years. Pakistan is one of the major hosts for these Afghanistan refugees. According to a UNHCR report, till June 2022, Pakistan still hosts more than 1.3 Million Afghanistan’s Refugees within its territory. Once the number of such Afghan refugees were much massive from the mentioned statistics; however, some of them have returned to their country over the year. Nevertheless, 1.3 million is still huge number of refugees which are settled in Pakistan; impact the socio-economic, political and law and order situations of the host country in a number of ways.
Generally, migrants or refugees have positive impacts on the economic situations of a country as they usually have skills and technical expertise. But in case of afghan refugees in Pakistan, things were witnessed oppositely; as these refugees were majorly illiterate with no technical skills. Thus, they became serious burden on the economy of Pakistan; the implications of which are still noticed in the economic sector of the host. Similarly, some of them established well-organized businesses in Pakistan yet they don’t pay taxes; which have created further complexities in the economic sector. Thus, afghan refugees are source of economic trouble for already struggling Pakistan economy, on both major and minor level.
Moreover, several social and ethnic issues also came into existence after the afghan refugees’ settlement in Pakistan. For instance, Pakistani society witnessed street crimes raise, terrorism, ethnic differences, drug trafficking and Child labor etc. Thousands of these child belong to Afghan refugees, work 15 hours daily in various streets of Pakistan, in order to earn their livelihood; thus have negative impact on the image of the host country at both national and international front. Likewise, although there are several cultural uniformities between people of Pakistan and Afghan refugees, yet they possess cultural diversities in a number of aspects as well; which produce cultural complexities within the society of the host country.
Similarly, introduction of various drugs has been noticed in the Pakistan’s society in past few decades. Few years ago, senate standing committee on interior and drug control published a report; uncovering the fact that about seven million people are drug addicted in which majority belong to Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Both mentioned provinces are the major hosts for the afghan refugees; which are majorly involved in drug trade and other social evils. The United Nations office on drug and crime also seconded the report related to Refugees involvement in drug trafficking.
More importantly, Pakistan has suffered a lot from insurgencies, terrorism and instabilities, after welcoming Afghan refugees. The ongoing war on terror has caused severe casualties to Pakistan in the economic, social and political sectors. During this era, the country has experienced numerous attacks from various terrorist groups and insurgents. Among such attacks, a large number were either facilitated or conducted from these refugee’s camps and shelters.Pakistani leadership on both national and international level endorsed the fact several times that how these refugee’s camps are used by various terrorist groups for the activities against Pakistan. For instance, according to a report, in 2014 terrorists used one of the afghan refugees house as a shelter, before the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.
It can be concluded that, several Social, economic and security complexes are directly linked with afghan refugee’s presence in Pakistan. In this regard, both governmental and non-governmental institutions need a comprehensive roadmap, in order to not only keep a close eye on Afghan refugees, but make sure timely repatriation of them as well.
(-The writer currently works as a Research Associate at the International Parliamentarians’ Congress Islamabad. He has wide experience in writing for various newspapers and can be reached at barkatullahbarakaat@gmail.com.)
