The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that Pakistan has been hosting Afghan refugees for the last more than 40 years without receiving any funds in return. The voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan to their home country is continuing after the Government of Pakistan ordered all illegal immigrants, including Afghan refugees to leave Pakistani soil. According to authorities at the Chaman border, more than 5,000 Afghans have already voluntarily repatriated to their country through the Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing in the past few days.
Millions of Afghan refugees have been living in Pakistan over the past more than four decades in the aftermath of the 1978 Sour Revolution (Sour Inqilab) followed by the invasion of the former Soviet Union’s Red Army in 1979, that forced millions of Afghans to migrate to neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. The majority of Afghan refugees did not return to their country after withdrawal of the former Soviet Union from their nation while thousands others came to Pakistan during the years-long civil war and in the backdrop of the US invasion of Afghanistan. Historically millions of refugees not only created serious law and order problems in the country but nose down the already fragile economy of their neighbouring.
Meanwhile, the heroin and Kalashnikov culture, violent extremism and terrorism are other blessings those come into our society along with the Afghan Jihad. After the recent upsurge in terrorism and unceasing economic setback, the Security and Law Enforcement Agencies warned the government that the majority of foreign currency particularly the US dollars, and essential commodities including fertilisers, sugar, wheat flour, livestock, oil etc are being smuggled to neighbouring Afghanistan while the scores of illegal migrants had been involved in such heinous crimes over the past multiple years. Meanwhile, the European Union Agency of Asylum and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have termed the presence of millions of illegal immigrants on Pakistani soil a threat to the country and recommended an early deportation to neutralised serious hazard to national security.
Historically, the government and the people of Pakistan had always acted out of their love for the well-being and safety of their Afghan brothern throughout in history. Amid such unmatchable love and unparalleled hospitality over the past decades, Pakistani nation has reached on the verge of economic collapse while Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty is at stake on the hands of terrorist groups who attack Pakistan’s western frontiers on a regular basis.
The entire world and the UNHCR has categorically acknowledged Pakistan’s sincere efforts and services for the people of Afghanistan. Hopefully, our Afghan brethren would consider the urgency of the situation and would render all possible assistance to Pakistan at this hour of need when this nation is struggling for its survival.
