Pakistan: 82pc refugees unwilling to return home

By Zulfiqar Ali

PESHAWAR, May 19: More than 82 per cent of Afghans living in Pakistan are reluctant to go back to their country owing to non-availability of means of livelihood and the fragile security situation there. A recently conducted nationwide census reveals that 2,517,558 Afghans, out of a total 3,047,225, are unwilling to leave Pakistan by the end of this year.

The census report says that personal enmity, lack of shelter and non-availability of livelihood are major factors discouraging Afghans from going back to their country.

The federal Population Census Organisation with the financial and technical assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conducted the census in last February.

It was meant to record gender, ethnicity, address and source of livelihood of Afghans living in Pakistan since 1979, and also whether or not they wanted to return to Afghanistan in the next 12 months. Some 2,517,558 Afghans have expressed their desire to stay on in Pakistan, the census has found.

About 20 per cent of all Afghans surveyed said they could not go back to their homeland due to personal enmity, 40 per cent cited security as a major stumbling block, 60 per cent described lack of shelter as a key impediment and 80 per cent said lack of means of income posed obstacle to their return.

The report said that 62 per cent Afghans are living in the NWFP and its adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) while others are living in other three provinces.

Revealing ethnic classification of the Afghans based in Pakistan, the census document estimates that out of 3,047,225 Afghans, 2485120 are Pukhtuns, 52,009 Baloch, 60,733 Turkmen, 39,454 Hazara, 71,526 Uzbek and 221,725 Tajik.

Sources said that consultations were under way at different levels to find out a durable solution regarding the future of Afghans in Pakistan because a tripartite agreement, signed by Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR, would expire by the end of March 2006.

An official said that Islamabad was likely to declare all Afghans "economic immigrants" after completion of the registration process following which work permits would be issued for a period of five to ten years.