The global challenge of people forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution is expressed in many ways – in faceless numbers, always millions more than in the previous year; in the images of desperate people crowded onto rickety boats; in the pictures of endless tents on a barren, dusty field. Around the world, at least 50 million people either have been displaced internally or have fled to foreign lands. Some, like Palestinians, have lived as refugees for generations; some, like Syrians and Ukrainians, are fleeing more recent conflicts; some, like the Rohingya of Myanmar, run from systematic persecution.
Thousands of Syrians have been fleeing the city of Tal Abyad on the Turkish-Syrian border since it began to be targeted by US-led coalition jets amid ground clashes between fighters of the Islamic State (IS) and Syrian Kurdish units of the YPG backed by their allies. Among the report’s main findings are that Syrians, for the first time, have become the largest refugee population under UNHCR’s mandate, overtaking Afghans, who had held that position for more than three decades.
Reports say that up to 40,000 of the displaced people in Rakhine state live in camps within 500 meters of the coastline, leaving them vulnerable to the elements amid an imminent monsoon season. The government in Myanmar, continues to discriminate against religious minorities. Anti-discrimination laws do not apply to ethnic groups not formally recognized under the law as citizens, including the Muslim Rohingya in northern Rakhine State and some other ethnic groups. Incidents of violence against Rohingya increased beginning in 2012 and have carried over into 2015. Further, societal abuses and discrimination based on a mix of ethnicity and religious affiliation, belief or practice occurred.
On World Refugee Day, June 20, the UNHCR must have issued another report, which is to be certain to point out the appalling global growth in the number of refugees and that the overwhelming majority, 86 percent, lives in developing countries, which are least able to support them. The World Refugee Day must have reflected a harsh reality. There are currently more refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced persons than at any time since World War II.
Afghanistan currently produces the second-largest number of refugees in the world, after Syria. The armed conflict between the Taliban and the Afghan government has added considerably to the millions of Afghans who became refugees since the 1980s. Pakistan has hosted about 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees for more than three decades, while another 1 million unregistered Afghans live in that country.
Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, refugees have fled into the surrounding states. After the Soviets left, civil war, Taliban conquest, and the Western-led invasion after September 11, 2001 have meant constant warfare in Afghanistan. Millions have fled the violence, then in times of relative peace returned, only to flee again when renewed fighting broke out.
Afghan refugees had come to the limelight in Pakistan after terrorist attack on Army Public School and College Peshawar on December 16, 2014. The Afghan registered refugees are harassed at the hands of police at check-posts and this has worried the UN agency.
Mohammad Tariq, the Pakistan chief coordinator of home and tribal affairs department, said, about two months ago, on the occasion that Afghan government should create conducive environment to encourage refugees to go back to their homeland. He also asked Afghan government to own its people and give them incentives.
After the APS attack, police were empowered to take action against illegal Afghans. Thousands of unregistered Afghans had been deported to Afghanistan during the last few months. However, registered Afghan refugees had been complaining about harassment at the hands of police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh.
Tariq Bashir, a representative of UNHCR, said that increasing incidents of extortion from the returning families, restriction on access of refugees to southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and encampment of refugees in certain areas were major challenges.
He said that despite hosting largest population, Pakistan had no law for refugees and they were being treated under the ad hoc administrative arrangements like notifications. He said that draft refugee law had been under consideration.
In the very critical time that Afghan government is supposed to alleviate the challenges of Afghan refugees and prepare the ground for their return, the problems are aggravated by militancy carried out by the Taliban and Islamic State insurgents. As a result, reports say that hundreds of families have been displaced in Nangarhar province following clashes between Taliban and IS insurgents. In short, Afghanistan is in the grip of escalated militancy which narrows opportunity for the refugees’ homecoming. In the meantime, a large number of Afghan families have taken refuge in international camps seeking foreign citizenships to survive terrorism. The emergence of the Islamic State militants in Afghanistan – which has deteriorated the security situation – raised public concerns. Moreover, a considerable number of the Taliban insurgents have also pledged allegiance to them.
Signing Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which was the only glimmer of hope for Afghan people in stabilizing the country, was no more than a flash in the pan. It failed to bring peace and roused public doubts about the US troops. Afghan populace hope that the international community will pay a due attention to the challenges of Afghan refugees and aid the government to stabilize the country so that Afghans be able to breathe safely under a true democracy.