At last, the fate of Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan has been decided and their stay in the country has been extended for two and a half years and now, they will be able to live in the country till the end of 2015. This decision was taken in a meeting presided over by the new premier of the country, Mr. Nawaz Sharif. With this decision, almost 1.6 million Afghans will be able to live a decent life in the country while the sources of UNHCR say that there are further 0.6 to 1 million Afghans present in the country who still don’t have any kind of documentation. It must be mentioned here that in that last ten years, due to the combined efforts of UNHCR, and governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, 3.8 million Afghans returned to their homeland while still 1.6 million have not decided to return to Afghanistan. Many incentives like per-head bonuses and transportation charges were given to the Afghans to return to their homeland.

With this decision, the fear of Afghans to be detained and disturbed by the Pakistani authorities has vanished and now, they will be able to live confidently in the country. In past, Afghans were greatly disturbed, and even tortured by the illegal tactics of Pakistani authorities especially police that did all these to take some bribe from them. After the refugee identity cards were issued to them, there came a decrease in this trend.

Though Afghans residing in Pakistan have expressed their delight on the decision but still majority of them are not willing to return to their homeland due to a number of reasons. The first and most important reason is the lack of jobs and other financial activities. In Pakistan, they are able to earn bread for their families and the cost of living is less comparing to Afghanistan but in Afghanistan, due to the lack of industries and other economic activities, they fear of not finding opportunities to earn bread for their families. It is especially true for the unskilled and uneducated Afghans as hundreds and thousands of Afghans living in Afghanistan are also jobless and their return would only add to the severity of the problem.

Second biggest problem is the deteriorating law and order situation. Increasing functionality and re-emergence of Taliban and other terrorist elements in different parts of the country has greatly shook the confidence of Afghans on the future of Afghanistan regarding security and same concern is found in the Afghans residing in Pakistan.

If government of Afghanistan wants that all the Afghans should return to their homeland and be an effective part of our society, the mentioned problems must be solved.