2023-06-20 11:55:39
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The government of Pakistan should urgently stop harassing and arbitrarily detaining Afghan refugees and asylum seekersmany of whom are fleeing persecution by the Taliban, Amnesty International said today on World Refugee Day.
In recent years, many Afghans, fearing persecution after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, have fled to Pakistan, where they have been subjected to waves of arbitrary detentions and arrests y threatened with deportation. Due to the considerable delays in the registration process, most of these people do not have the identification card that proves that they have completed this process and regularize their situation in order to stay in Pakistan. Many of them came to Pakistan with normal visas that have already expired.
“It is very worrying that the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention.”
“These people, unable to return to their country or stay permanently in Pakistan, are trapped in a no-win situation. The ambiguity of their legal status and the difficulty of obtaining asylum or relocation processes in a third country make them even more vulnerable,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, Deputy Director for South Asia at Amnesty International.
Amnesty International conducted nine remote interviews with Afghans, six of whom had been detained in Pakistan in the previous three months. In 2022, he had also carried out several interviews with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, along with constant monitoring of the media and analysis of official documents. Afghan refugees have raised serious concerns regarding their harassment by the Pakistani police and authorities.
“Our life in Pakistan cannot be called life”
Hussain,* A former employee of the Afghan Interior Ministry, he fled to Pakistan with his family in 2022, escaping at the last minute from the Taliban in Kabul. He was recently detained in a wave of arrests and harassed by the Pakistani authorities.
In February 2023, the police raided and ransacked Hussain’s Islamabad home, along with those of other Afghan families in the neighbourhood. Hussain says that around 10pm they took him in handcuffs to the police station, where they questioned him about his immigration status, his job and his social circles. The police detained and brought to the police station about 20 more Afghans.
“They took our passports and wallets and searched us several times. They even detained those who had valid visas and were in the country legally,” he stated.
The next morning, Hussain was released after paying a “fine” of Rs 30,000, but the police refused to give him any documents explaining the reason for his arrest, nor did they provide him with a receipt for the fine. Five other Afghan detainees interviewed by Amnesty International recounted similar incidents: they all had to pay fines of between Rs 5,000 and Rs 30,000, without being issued any official documents about their detention or the fine. “Our life in Pakistan cannot be called life,” Hussain said.
These cases are just a small fraction of the many Afghans who have come to Pakistan seeking asylum with the intention of starting a new life in the country or using it as a pathway to resettle in a third country. The threats and harassment they have suffered have been increasing, as delays in their relocation to third countries and the expiration of their visas make them legally vulnerable.
Countries that offered special relocation programs to Afghan men and women at risk of persecution by the Taliban, such as The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany are currently not issuing visas in the territory of Afghanistan, where they do not have diplomatic representation. At the same time, the process of issuing these documents in Pakistan remains complicated and long, with several months of waiting. For example, in October 2022, Germany launched a humanitarian admission program for Afghans at risk of persecution, the goal of which was to bring up to 1,000 Afghans per month to Germany. According to the media, no one has been transferred from Afghanistan to Germany through the program as of June 2023, and the Afghans who were told by the German authorities to go to Pakistan to apply for their visas there remain in this country.
Asylum-seeking Afghans also go through a lengthy process to get proof of registration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Coupled with lengthy visa renewal procedures for the Pakistani government, these delays make it easier for the police to harass them and for other authorities to extort them, practices that are reported from all over Pakistan, including Sindh, Karachi, Peshawar, Chaman and Quetta, among other places.
Afghans who spoke to Amnesty International said they felt their right to freedom of expression was being significantly curtailed, as they could not publicly complain about the hardship caused by their precarious legal situation. The situation is especially dire for women and girls, who experience discrimination in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
‘We have to pay bribes’
Afghans who do not have documents to prove their legal status they cannot get formal jobs and often end up doing low-paying jobs where they are vulnerable to exploitation.
Without a visa or card it is also difficult to get a SIM card or open a bank account, with the consequent impossibility of receiving money from the family. Those who rent homes also take advantage of this lack of documents proving that they are regularly in the country.
“If you don’t have a card, you can’t get a legal rental agreement, and you have to bribe a middleman,” Hussain said, referring to the registration card.
Many of the people who have recently arrived have to travel to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and officially leave Pakistan to renew their visas, which can be costly and dangerous. Two of the people interviewed said that border guards demanded bribes from them to let them cross the border, even though they had valid visas.
The Pakistani authorities usually apply the Aliens Law of 1946 to detain Afghans in the country, even if their documentation is in order. Despite contacting human rights groups in Pakistan, recently detained Afghan refugees said they were not provided legal protection while in police custody. In addition, Afghans often find it difficult to access health care and education for their sons and daughters, as there are schools that refuse to admit them due to ambiguities about their legal status. It is especially difficult for women and girls to enroll in schools in Pakistan due to gender discrimination.
bureaucratic obstacles
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is responsible for registering Afghan asylum seekers, issuing them with cards proving their registration and determining whether they are refugees. This UN agency contracted the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP) to carry out this registration process, but interviewees told Amnesty International that the long Waiting times at SHARP offices to try to get an interview and the slow response to calls made it virtually impossible for newly arrived Afghans to quickly obtain legal documentation.
Ahmad,* another asylum seeker interviewed by Amnesty International, called UNHCR in Pakistan in November 2021 to request the proof of registration card. In August 2022, they asked him to send them his biometric data, but ten months later he has still not received the official document.
For Ahmad, Hussain and other Afghan refugees in Pakistan who worked for the former Afghan government or in civil society agencies, it is impossible to return to Afghanistan.
“Afghan asylum seekers first suffered the punishment of the Taliban, and now, that of the harsh registration, asylum and visa procedures. The international community has failed to provide adequate protection to people fleeing persecution in Afghanistan, in clear breach of its initial promises. These Afghans urgently need more support,” said Dinushika Dissanayake.
“Amnesty International calls on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to expedite the registration and review of the applications of Afghans seeking refugee status in Pakistan, to the Pakistani government, which stop arbitrarily detaining and harassing Afghan refugees, and third countries offering to relocate Afghans abroad, expedite the issuance of visas.”
Additional information
Amnesty International has changed all the names of the people interviewed to protect their identity. On June 14, 2023, he contacted the Pakistani government, UNHCR and SHARP to communicate his results, but at the time these lines are published, he has not yet received a response.
Due to the danger of persecution, UNHCR issued recommendations against returns for Afghans who were outside Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. According to UNHCRin Pakistan there are more than 3.7 million Afghans who fled Afghanistan for political and economic reasons, of whom only 1.4 million are officially registered.
On December 15, 2022, Amnesty International raised the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan your concern regarding the situation of asylum seekers and refugees from Afghanistan.
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