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U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2000 - Pakistan

At year's end, Pakistan hosted more than 1.2 million refugees. These included an estimated 1.2 million Afghan refugees recognized or assisted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 15,000 refugees from Indian controlled Kashmir, and about 2,000 refugees from other countries, including some 900 from Somalia, 500 from Iraq, and 500 from Iran. According to UNHCR, 100,000 Afghan refugees entered Pakistan during 1999 (only some of whom registered with the agency), while about 92,000 others repatriated from Pakistan to Afghanistan. As many as two million other Afghans lived in Pakistan in refugee-like circumstances.

Refugees from Afghanistan

Afghan refugees first fled to Pakistan in 1978 after a communist government seized control of Afghanistan. The influx mushroomed after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, growing to more than 4 million in the 1980s. The Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, but significant numbers of refugees did not return home until Afghan insurgents ousted the Soviet installed Najibullah regime in 1992.

In subsequent years, infighting among the various Afghan factions that ousted Najibullah deterred many Afghans from repatriating, sent hundreds of thousands of new refugees into Pakistan and Iran, and internally displaced large numbers of people. In the mid-1990s, the radical Islamist Taliban faction gained momentum and seized control over southern Afghanistan and Kabul. At the end of 1999, the Taliban controlled nearly 90 percent of the country.

Over the years, it has been nearly impossible to determine exactly how many Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan. Not all Afghans registered as refugees. Many came and went informally. Births and deaths were difficult to track. Therefore estimates of the refugee population have always been just that: estimates.

In 1999, UNHCR used the figure of 1.2 million Afghan refugees for planning purposes, yet nearly twice that number have gone to Pakistan in recent years at least in part because of the conflict but have not registered as refugees. Most are ethnic Pushtuns and have settled alongside ethnic Pushtun Pakistanis in Northwest Frontier Province. The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) considers them to be persons in refugee-like circumstances.

A majority of the registered refugees live in villages that appear much like other rural villages in Pakistan. They are able to move freely in Pakistan and work wherever they can find jobs. The UN offers food aid to about ten percent of the refugees, primarily to widows and disabled persons. UNHCR assisted 91,834 Afghans to repatriate from Pakistan during the 1999. The agency believed that another 100,000 Afghans fled to Pakistan during the year, of whom about 30,000 registered with UNHCR.

During the 1990s, both donor countries and many of the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working with the refugees shifted the emphasis of their programs from care and maintenance to facilitating repatriation and helping returnees. However, in the face of continuing conflict in Afghanistan and new refugee flows into Pakistan, in recent years the agencies began to refocus some of their programs on refugee assistance.

In testimony before a U.S. Senate committee in March, the head of the U.S. Department of State's refugee bureau, Julia Taft, said, "Repatriation has slowed. New refugees are arriving.... In response, we have reversed our phase-out strategy and last year funded a number of new or renewed NGO assistance projects in Pakistan." Noting the discrimination that women in Afghanistan face under the Taliban, Taft said that the United States was focusing its efforts on refugee women's health and education. She said doing so might be one of the international community's "few opportunities...to address the educational needs of Afghan women and girls in the near future."

Even in Pakistan, however, Afghan girls were not immune from the Taliban's efforts to restrict their rights. According to press reports, the Taliban warned teachers in refugee schools in Pakistan to restrict lessons for girls to verses from the Koran and not to provide education to girls older than age eight. Afghan refugees in Pakistan who criticized the Taliban, including women who spoke out against Taliban policies on women, sometimes faced harsh treatment at the hands of Taliban supporters. In January 1999, unknown assailants killed the wife and son of well-known moderate, and later in the year killed two more Taliban opponents.

At several points during 1999, Pakistani authorities threatened to move all Afghan refugees living in urban areas into refugee camps. UNHCR's representative in Peshawar, the city with the largest Afghan refugee population, said, "We do not have the resources [to care for all the Afghans in camps], nor can we start feeding them again in camps that are already overcrowded." Although the government did not follow through with the relocation in 1999, Pakistani authorities often harassed Afghan refugees. In June, police demolished the stalls of a number of Afghan traders at a market in Peshawar and beat the traders and their Afghan customers.

In November, Pakistan reportedly pushed back 300 Afghan asylum seekers at the border. It was impossible to know how many other such pushbacks may have occurred during the year.

Kashmiris

Conflict in Kashmir, part of which is controlled by India and part by Pakistan, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people both within the region and to other parts of the world, particularly the United Kingdom. The conflict, which takes place primarily in Indian-held Kashmir and along the border, is between the Indian armed forces and Kashmiri Muslim insurgents - allegedly supported by Pakistan - who seek union with Pakistan or an independent Kashmir. On occasion, including in 1999, the conflict pits India and Pakistan, both now nuclear powers, directly against one another.

Kashmiris who entered Pakistan or Pakistan-controlled Kashmir from Indian controlled Kashmir before 1971 were offered land, assistance, and citizenship by Pakistan. However, the more than 15,000 refugees from Indian Kashmir who fled to Pakistan after 1971 were living in camps in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, known as Azad and Jammu Kashmir. Because Pakistan did not recognize Indian sovereignty over any part of Kashmir, it officially considered the refugees to be internally displaced persons. Therefore the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), not UNHCR, assisted this population. The Azad and Jammu Kashmir authorities also assisted them.

In May, conflict erupted between India and Pakistan along the border between the two Kashmirs (see India). The conflict left dozens dead and displaced tens of thousands within both India and Pakistan. According to the U.S. Department of State, as many as 14,000 persons from Indian-controlled Kashmir crossed into Azad and Jammu Kashmir. It remained unclear whether the refugees returned home after the hostilities subsided.

Reports of the number of persons who became displaced within Pakistan varied significantly. In mid-June, at the height of the crisis, the ICRC placed the number of displaced at some 30,000, but later in the conflict local sources and press reports said the number may have reached 100,000.

The government of Pakistan, the ICRC, and local NGOs assisted the displaced. In early June, shortly after the crisis began, Pakistan's Kashmir affairs minister said the government had earmarked the equivalent of $500,000 to aid the displaced. According to press reports, however, many of the displaced were dissatisfied with the level of assistance they received. In mid-July, Agence France Presse (AFP) said "frustration is growing among camp dwellers complaining of tough conditions." AFP added that displaced persons had demonstrated outside government offices demanding increased aid.

Pakistan and India reached an accord in July officially ending the hostilities that began in May. Observers believed that most of those displaced returned home during subsequent months. However, skirmishes continued along the border throughout the year, leaving dozens more dead and temporarily displacing another 10,000 people within Pakistan in late September.

Other Refugees

According to UNHCR, Pakistan hosted about 2,000 refugees from other countries, including 900 from Somalia, 500 from Iraq, and 500 from Iran. These included 497 persons whom UNHCR newly recognized as refugees during the year.

Apart from the registered Afghan refugees, Pakistan regarded all other refugees, including those recognized by UNHCR, as illegal aliens. It allowed UNHCR recognized refugees to remain pending repatriation or third-country resettlement, but did not permit them to work or to receive free health care or education. UNHCR provided the refugees financial assistance, medical care, and scholarships, and sought durable solutions for them.