Afghan refugees residing in different cities of Pakistan have once again got concerned about their uncertain future in the country. Almost 5 years before, the registration of Afghan refugees was done and they were issued cards for a certain period of time. Although these cards were issued by the government of Pakistan and by the same entity that also issues the national identity cards of Pakistani citizens as well but unfortunately, these cards were sometimes not given any importance by the security forces of Pakistan and refugees were teased even in the presence of the cards.

After these cards expired, they were extended till the end of 2012. Before the cards expired in 2012, members of Afghan government, of Pakistani government and United Nations’ Agency for Refugees held meetings which resulted in the extension of these cards for further six months. Now, these six months are also going to end and thus more than a million Afghan refugees are really concerned about their fate.

Although United Nations introduced many incentives to entice the Afghan refugees to return to their homeland that included of cash stipends to the members of the family and of similar attractive features and thousands of refugees got benefitted from them and returned to their homeland yet still there are more than a million refugees in different cities of Pakistan who are not willing to leave Pakistan due to numerous reasons.

It is also on the record that whenever any Afghan citizen is blamed of being involved in any terrorist attack, Pakistani police gets a chance to make good money from all the Afghans. Afghan citizens are arrested without any discrimination of profession, social status and other factors.

On such occasions, police doesn’t give any importance to the registration card issued by its own government and refuses to accept it. Thousands of people are arrested and very few of them go through a legal process and majority of them are released either on the spot or in a few days after taking bribe spanning from thousands to mere 50 to 60 rupees. It becomes a golden opportunity for police officials to make easy money. But such acts really terrorize the Afghans who feel themselves unsafe even with a legal document.

Now, it is feared that police will again tease the refugees in different cities of Pakistan. In this regard, our embassy in Pakistan and officials of foreign ministry should get active to save the Afghans of the panic. If the refugees are going to stay in Pakistan, they should be given full legal authority and if their legal stay is not going to be extended, government should make sure their safe and proper return to the country. It is also unfortunate from our side that refugees are left fully alone in such cases and our government officials responsible for seeing such issues don’t do anything. It is the call of time that Afghan government should take early moves in this regard.