Re: Afghan civil war - Pakistan’s options
UNHCR - Pakistan
UNHCR - UNHCR Global Report 2012 - Pakistan
Err… yes they did. Not just the UNHCR but also the Afghan Commissionerate in Peshawar got funding for a very long time (don’t know the current status though). The question of whether this funding was allotted in the right places is a no brainer. I wish I could quote some personal references here but lets just say someone very close to me was one of the people in charge of making sure the aid was distributed to the right places and when he spoke up against the rampant corruption, he wasn’t kept alive for long. The UNHCR in Peshawar is a big joke and you can bet most of the numbers in these reports about providing aid are fudged up.
Personally, its comments like “these ingrate refugees should be kicked out all all borders sealed” that upset me the most. And then Pakistani’s wonder why Afghans never liked them despite hosting them and supporting them for such a long time. Even though Pakistan’s involvement in Afghan affairs has been undeniable, most of the Afghans I know have been very grateful for being allowed to settle in Pakistan even though it wasn’t easy for another third-world country to take such a large number of refugees for an indefinite period of time at once. Most of these people didn’t even get a chance to pack their bags and say proper goodbyes before they had to leave their country to save their lives. They wouldn’t even invest in simple household stuff under the pretense that things in Afghanistan will settle soon and they’ll be back but months turned into years and decades and once they realized things were probably not going to get stable in Afg for a very long time, they made use of whatever few resources they had to settle in. So all this hospitality goes out the door if your host keeps telling you to go back to your country when you have no choice but stay to make ends meet and keep yourself alive.
I agree, the situation in Afghanistan may be a lot better now, but it’s just not easy to just “pack your bags” and move out from a place you’ve called home for decades. Not to mention the growing number of second and third generation Afghans now born and raised in Pakistan who relate to it’s culture and recognize it as their home. The rights of these generations is still unknown. I don’t know if many of you are aware that these children don’t even have an equal right to a public education in Pakistan or to integrate in the mainstream workforce. Private schooling is only available to those who can afford it which doesn’t compound to a very big number so a lot of these children are out on the streets and don’t know what to do with their time once they take their metric exams. Forget the right to a citizenship status or being allowed to own property legally (I know there are a lot of illegal property owners), these refugees don’t even get the basic human right to an education and constantly been made to feel like outsiders! Respect goes both ways.
P.S: Please don’t hate me. I love Pakistan. Also, I’m married to a Pakistani 