Kabul admin seeks int’l aid to manage Afghan refugee influx from Pakistan
“We call on the international community (including) Muslim countries to help,” Taliban’s nominee to the UN, Suhail Shaheen, told reporters, pointing to the rush of incoming refugees through border openings with Pakistan in Torkham and Spin Boldak.
“It is a humanitarian issue,” Shaheen emphasized in a phone interview from Afghanistan, adding that around 300,000 undocumented Afghan refugees have returned to the war-torn nation since November 1.
Last month, the caretaker Pakistani government announced that all undocumented foreigners, primarily Afghan refugees, would be deported, with an October 31 deadline.
Shaheen said the Pakistani government gave “a short notice” to Afghans to leave the South Asian nation.
The refugee influx into Afghanistan comes at a time when the interim administration is working to fix the economy of the country which saw war until the Taliban returned in 2021. No nation has recognized the interim administration, and international funding has dried up.
Nearly 1 million people are targeted under what Islamabad calls the “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” – most of whom are Afghans.
The UN and the Afghan interim administration have urged Islamabad to halt such plans.
Shaheen said the incoming refugees need “food, drinking water, blankets, and tents.”
The international community “can help Afghan refugees who have been deprived of their many properties in Pakistan … they have even been harassed by police and security forces of Pakistan,” he argued.
“Now they are inside Afghanistan and this is where the international community can help,” he said.
The Taliban has formed 12 committees – Shaheen is part of the media committee – to oversee the repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. They have established tent cities in the two border cities to receive their citizens.
Desperate condition
In the first four days from the beginning of November, more than 60% of arrivals from Pakistan were children, data by the UN humanitarian office revealed.
“Their condition is desperate, with many having travelled for days,” it said, calling for urgent funding to provide immediate post-arrival assistance to the refugees.
Shaheen rejected Pakistan’s accusation that militancy inside the South Asian neighbor of Kabul was because of Afghanistan.
“The security problem in Pakistan has . . . been there for last 20 years. . . ,” Shaheen said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar claimed that militant attacks in the country had increased by 60% since the Afghan Taliban reclaimed power in August 2021.
“It is not something made by the government in Kabul,” Shaheen retorted.
“They (Pakistan) have the same problem. Those attacks are happening 200 kilometers (124 miles) inside the country,” he said of Pakistan, which has faced mounting attacks by the homegrown Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP) militant group.
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