Long Wait for Freedom: Afghan Refugees in Limbo in Pakistan

Afghan refugee children sit outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Azakhel Voluntary Repatriation Centre in Nowshera. FAROOQ NAEEM / AFP
Afghan refugee children sit outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Azakhel Voluntary Repatriation Centre in Nowshera. FAROOQ NAEEM / AFP
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Long Wait for Freedom: Afghan Refugees in Limbo in Pakistan

Afghan refugee children sit outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Azakhel Voluntary Repatriation Centre in Nowshera. FAROOQ NAEEM / AFP
Afghan refugee children sit outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Azakhel Voluntary Repatriation Centre in Nowshera. FAROOQ NAEEM / AFP

Abdullah was a well-known public figure in Afghanistan, a journalist and university lecturer respected by his readers and students.
In Pakistan, however, he is laying low -- worried about being caught in a deportation dragnet and after two years still waiting to be evacuated to the West, AFP said.
He fled Afghanistan when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 on the advice of US officials and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), fearing retribution from the new authorities who, as a militant group, had a history of targeting journalists.
The 30-year-old crossed into Pakistan along with an estimated 600,000 other Afghans, with tens of thousands promised asylum in third countries.
But more than 345,000 Afghans have returned to their country or been deported since Pakistan in October ordered undocumented migrants or those who have overstayed their visas to leave.
"For fear of the police, I haven't left this room for 15 days," said Abdullah, using a pseudonym for security reasons.
"If I could have led a normal life in Kabul, I would have become a street vendor or shopkeeper. I would have preferred that to my current situation."
Rights groups have said many Afghans have been left in limbo -- their visas expired because of delays in the Pakistan registration system. Thousands are trapped in an interminable relocation process established by Western nations, which has significantly slowed.
Abdullah has a valid visa, but said armed police have twice raided his home.
"In Kabul, I was a journalist and university teacher. Here I've lost my identity," he told AFP from an apartment in Islamabad.
Since fleeing Afghanistan he has exchanged only two or three e-mails with US officials.
RSF has arranged an interview for him at the French embassy in Islamabad.
'Need to live'
Ahmed, a former British army interpreter in Afghanistan, was approved for evacuation two years ago yet remains stuck in an Islamabad hotel room paid for by the UK's diplomatic mission.
"I have been here more than 700 days," the 32-year-old said bitterly.
"I don't know the reason why the UK Government is doing injustice with me, why I have been stuck here. I need a life, I need education and I want to build my new home," said Ahmed, also using a pseudonym.
His Pakistan visa expired over a year ago, and he fears being deported to Afghanistan, even though Islamabad has pledged not to kick out people in his situation.

"When I text my caseworker, he's telling me: 'Be patient, be patient, be patient'," he told AFP.
"The worst word is 'Be patient'," said Ahmed, who is also supported by Sulha Alliance -- an association campaigning for Afghan interpreters who worked with the British army.
Many Afghan refugees, migrants and asylum seekers feel forgotten by the world, which has turned its attention to other crises, such as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
While Britain has welcomed 21,500 Afghans as part of its resettlement programs for former employees and people at risk, 70 percent of them arrived when Kabul was evacuated by the chaotic airlift that coincided with the Taliban takeover.
Only 175 people have been resettled in the first six months of 2023, according to the Migration Observatory, which analyzes UK Home Office statistics.
The United States has taken in 90,000 Afghans since August 2021 -- again, the majority from the evacuation of Kabul.
Precise data on Afghans in Pakistan awaiting resettlement abroad is not available, but British media have reported that more than 3,000 Afghans are in Islamabad awaiting evacuation, while the German foreign ministry said 1,500 Afghans approved for asylum are still in Pakistan or Iran.
About 20,000 people recommended for asylum by US officials, NGOs and American media outlets are waiting in Pakistan for their cases to be examined, according to Refugees International.
Despite assurances from the Pakistan government that legitimate cases will not be deported, there are exceptions.
Last month, seven members of one family waiting to be reunited with a relative in Spain were deported, according to the Spanish Commission for Aid to Refugees.
'State of uncertainty'
Women's rights advocate Afsaneh, who arrived in March 2022 when the Taliban authorities began rounding up activists, lamented the "state of uncertainty".
The 38-year-old's children were not allowed into the Pakistani school system and the visa for one of them has not been extended.
"It's near to two years... but still my case is not processed," said Afsaneh, whose name has also been changed by AFP.
"It's delayed by Pakistan and by the embassies, who are not taking serious action about those who are facing threats and risks," she said.
Afsaneh has applied to Germany, Spain and Canada for asylum, but only the latter has kept in touch.
The crackdown by Pakistan authorities does seem to have pushed some Western nations to speed up procedures.
At the end of October, Britain resumed evacuation flights that had been interrupted for several months.
"If they (the international community) want to support the Afghan people, they should prove it in action," pleads Munisa Mubariz, 33, a women's rights activist who hopes to leave for Canada soon.
"They should implement their commitment and their plan and their promises to these refugees



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."