Pakistan has generously hosted huge number of Afghan refugees in the last three decades. Afghans and Pakistanis have a great number of commonalities such as, religion, culture, language and tradition. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's longest border is with Pakistan stretching to 2430 km. Such facts have allowed the Afghan people to comfortably live with their Pakistani counterpart over a long term. Nonetheless, it seems like the Pakistani government is now running out of patience.
Some 400,000 unregistered Afghan refugees are facing possible deportation from Pakistan after a deadline for them to register expired on June 30. In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Afghans are being arrested for court appearance and deportation. Being an Afghan refugee has never been easy.
The current move by Pakistani authorities is to add to the anguish of Afghan refugees in that country. Pakistan is home to saome 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees. The Pakistani officials say they can no longer carry the burden of an additional 400,000 undocumented Afghans in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Majorityof the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran think they would not be able to earn a livelihood in their own country due to high rate of unemployment. The bad security is also keeping them away from their homeland. Over the last decade, the government of Afghanistan has failed to resolve the grave challenges facing the Afghan refugees.
Although since early 2002, more than 5 million Afghans have been repatriated through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from both Pakistan and Iran back to their native country; their number has gone decreasing over the last few years.
UNHCR, the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and Pakistan government must come together and find a more appropriate solution to the problem of unregistered Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. It would be almost impossible for the Afghan government to manage for food, shelter and health services if large numbers of refugees are sent back to Afghanistan all at once.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government has to take such issues serious and work not only to encourage Afghan refugees return home but also provide them with employment opportunities so that they can stand on their own feet and are not compelled to leave their own homeland.