KARACHI – The government will grant nationality to all Pakistan-born refugees of Afghan and Bangladeshi origins, Prime Minister Imran Khan said in an unprecedented announcement on Sunday during his maiden visit to Karachi after forming the government.
The PM said that these refugees had been living here for more than 40 years and were not granted identity cards and passports.
“If you are born in America, you will be given nationality,” he added.
Imran Khan expressed that even the children of the refugees who were born in Pakistan were not given citizenship. “These people are humans and they have been deprived of citizenship.”
According to the United Nations refugee agency, there are 2.7 million Afghans, including 1.5 million registered as refugees, in Pakistan. The displaced families have fled decades of conflict, ethnic and religious persecution, poverty and economic hardships in turmoil-hit Afghanistan.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/pm-imran-for-coordinated-efforts-to-curb-street-crimes-in-karachi-recovery-of-abducted-kids/
The migration began in December 1989 as a result of the Afghan war against the Soviets and has continued since then until recently when repatriation of these refugees began under the supervision of the UN.
U.N. surveys suggest that around 60 percent of Afghan refugees were either born in Pakistan or were minors when their parents migrated to Pakistan.
War-shattered Afghanistan is therefore alien to most of these young people who are already part of the local economy in different ways.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/interim-government-extends-afghan-refugees-stay-in-pakistan/
The Afghan refugees are reluctant to go back to Afghanistan where security conditions have deteriorated in the wake of the stalemated war between U.S.-backed Afghan security forces and the Taliban insurgency.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had blocked the computerized national identity cards (CNICs) of Afghan refugees.
Earlier this month, a protest was held by Afghans outside Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence demanding the prime minister’s intervention in the matter.
The protesters had said due to the cancellation of the ID cards, they were facing various problems, including those regarding enrolment of their children in schools.
