PESHAWAR, Oct 12 (IPS) – Amid a looming menace of forceful eviction, Afghan girls who arrived in Pakistan after the Taliban’s takeover in Kabul have requested the host nation to permit them to remain as a result of they wish to proceed their training.
On October 4, Pakistan requested greater than 1 million undocumented Afghans to depart by November 1 or face deportation or jail. The announcement has brought about concern among the many 1000’s of girls and women who arrived after the Taliban took energy in Afghanistan in August 2021.
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“We want the Pakistani authorities to show mercy towards women so that they could continue work here because sending them would expose them to brutalities back home,” Mushtari Bibi, 35, who arrived in Peshawar from Nangrahar province in January this yr, informed IPS.
Bibi is amongst 1000’s of girls who left her native nation after the Taliban banned working girls in December 2022.
“I am not only concerned about my life, but my two daughters are studying here in a school because the Taliban has also banned female education,” she mentioned. Bibi mentioned she has additionally utilized for asylum or settlement in a 3rd nation, however the course of carried out by the UN company in partnership with the NGO Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP) is very gradual.
Bibi stitches garments and lives along with her relations.
A university pupil, Noor Mashal, informed IPS she would by no means return to Afghanistan. Mashal, 17, a grade 12 pupil, left Kabul for Peshawar alongside along with her mother and father when the Taliban banned girls’s training final yr.
“The entire world knows the Taliban’s human rights record, especially towards women. In Pakistan, women are doing odd jobs, and girls are studying in schools located in slum areas, which is far better than Afghanistan,” she mentioned.
Pakistan has 2.18 million registered Afghan refugees. Of them, 1.3 million have Proof of Registration (PoR) playing cards, and 880,000 have Afghan Citizens Cards (ACCs). After the autumn of Ashraf Ghani’s authorities in 2021, an estimated 800,000 got here to Pakistan. More than 1 million don’t have legitimate paperwork.
Others who fled after the Taliban’s rule are former servicemen, human rights activists, singers, and musicians. Some arrived on legitimate visas, however largely crossed into Pakistan with none journey paperwork.
Qaiser Khan Afridi, spokesperson for UNHCR, informed IPS that Pakistan has remained a beneficiant refugee host for many years. “UNHCR acknowledges and appreciates this hospitality and generosity. This role has been acknowledged globally, but more needs to be done to match its generosity by the international community,” Afridi mentioned.
According to the UN refugee company, any refugee return have to be voluntary with none strain to make sure safety for these in search of security.
“UNHCR stands ready to support Pakistan in developing a mechanism to manage and register people in need of international protection on its territory and respond to particular vulnerabilities,” Afridi mentioned.
An Afghan pupil who wished to be recognized as Spogmay mentioned Pakistan’s announcement relating to the eviction of refugees has additionally brought about alarm amongst her classmates.
“My father sold his properties in Herat province at a throwaway price when the Taliban started their anti-women activities. We arrived in Nowshera district near Peshawar and lived with relatives who already lived there,” the 20-year-old pupil mentioned.
Spogmay was finding out laptop science at Herat University in Afghanistan. She is now finding out in a personal academy.
My father has been promoting greens to outlive. “Going back to Afghanistan means sending us to the Stone Age because women have no education and work. What will we do except sit idle at home? We appreciate the hospitality of the host communities and expect the same from the government,” she mentioned.
On October 3, caretaker inside minister Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti mentioned that since January this yr, 24 terrorist assaults have occurred, and Afghan nationals have been concerned in 14 of those assaults.
More than half of the refugees dwell in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), one among Pakistan’s 4 provinces, near Afghanistan. Afghan Taliban chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, mentioned he doubted that the refugees have been the reason for Pakistan’s safety issues and described Pakistan’s “behaviour” in the direction of Afghan refugees as “unacceptable” and urged Islamabad to rethink its plan, saying in the event that they have been staying there voluntarily, Pakistan ought to “tolerate them.”
Civil society organisations and analysts need the federal government to evaluation its choice because the nation’s crackdown in opposition to unlawful refugees is in progress.
Rahim Khan, a Peshawar-based political science instructor, informed IPS that the federal government ought to cope with the terrorists with an iron hand however spare the ladies as a result of the scenario again house wasn’t value dwelling.
“It is common knowledge that most women have left Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s hostilities. Repatriating them forcefully or throwing them in jails is an utter violation of human rights,” Khan mentioned.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan mentioned that refugees’ proper to shelter, healthcare and authorized counsel have to be protected and slammed reviews that Afghan refugee settlements have been being razed and their occupants summarily evicted.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulemai Islam, a religious-political get together, opposed the continuing drive to repatriate Afghans.
He mentioned even these with the requisite paperwork have been being hauled away in an indiscriminate crackdown. “We cannot afford to strain ties with neighbours and a joint Pakistan-Afghanistan commission be formed to resolve the issue,” he mentioned.
In a joint attraction posted on X (previously Twitter), the UNHCR-IOM requested Pakistan to proceed its safety of all susceptible Afghans who’ve sought security within the nation and could possibly be at imminent safety danger if compelled to return.
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal supply: Inter Press Service
