August 06, 2021

Pakistan exploits Afghan refugees for political gains

topic:	Peace and Reconciliation
located:	Afghanistan, Pakistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

Fleeing one’s home and native land out of fear for survival is a heartbreaking experience, even more so when one is exploited by other states for political jockeying and monetary gains. That is exactly what Afghan refugees and migrants are undergoing, particularly in neighbouring Pakistan and, to some extent, in Europe and Turkey.

For decades, millions of these refugees have been living a hand-to-mouth existence in refugee camps in Pakistan under appalling conditions with little to no civil liberties; this despite the financial support allocated to them by UNHCR and other aid agencies in the country.

The other and more worrisome of Afghan refugees is their manipulation and abuse for political leverage. Despite compelling evidence of cross-border terrorism in Afghanistan, the Pakistani government has been using refugees as scapegoats in order to justify their support of Taliban insurgents. 

The country’s premier, Imran Khan, recently evaded multiple questions dealing with Afghan refugees at a press conference, claiming that the latter, viewing the Taliban as ‘normal civilians’, back the Taliban-led insurgency and that Islamabad has no control over it.

How can Khan hide with such spinning remarks his government’s deliberate exposure of refugee camps to terrorist activity in Pakistan? As per the control of the camps, or lack thereof, how can one forget the mass arrests and persecution of Afghan refugees across Pakistan when their legal status was repeatedly terminated.  

For those with no prior knowledge about the millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, it is important to highlight that most of them fled their homes due to the west-backed and Pakistan-led insurgency against the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan.

It is also equally important to note that the state of Pakistan, and its security and spy networks, gained a lot by instigating organised crime and militant activity in Pakistan before and after the Afghan ‘jihad’, and later on with the establishment of the Taliban regime and subsequent Taliban insurgency.

It is horrendous to see this dual evil: aggressively interfering in a neighbouring country and then blaming the destruction on the vulnerable refugees of that same country.

Within weeks of US President Joe Biden’s announcement of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, violence has terrorised the entire nation right as it began to fix its broken state and rise out of the ashes of decades of war.

Afghanistan’s neighbours need to realise that the flames of war here would inevitably engulf them as well. And so it would benefit them to act on their public acknowledgments of this reality instead of peddling a hidden agenda of seeking pleasure in others’ pain.

Image: Mohammad Rahmani. 

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