The Afghan Minister of Refugees and Repatriations Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi said last week that two million refugees had returned to Afghanistan since the formation of the National Unity Government (NUG), 70% of which were unregistered refugees and that there were still approximately 6 million Afghans refugees in various countries of the world.
Balkhi added that during the refugee crisis in the Europe, the deportation of 80 thousand Afghans from Germany was probable but that it was due to the policies of the Afghan government that only 580 people in 2015 and 754 people in 2016 were returned to the country.
What was the NUG’s policy towards the refugees? Did this policy produce any positive outcomes? These are the questions that are analyzed here.
The NUG’s stance regarding the Afghan refugees
The Afghan refugees are an important part of the Afghan nation and many of them are literate, professional, businessmen, and other likewise people that their return to the country could vastly contribute in the construction of the country. In 2015, during his speech in the Afghan Senate, the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that the Afghan refugees were part of the Afghan nation and that without their repatriation the Afghan nation was incomplete. [1]
Coincide with its formation, the NUG faced the challenges related to the refugees. These challenges had several aspects; more than 1.2 million internally displaced peoples (IDPs), the returnees from Waziristan, the undetermined fate of the returnees from Iran and Pakistan, the deportation of the Afghan refugees from these two countries, and the mass migration of the Afghan youth to Europe. In the meanwhile, another issues for the new government’s Minister of the Refugees and Repatriations was to eradicate corruption in this ministry and attract funds because due to corruption, the US had stopped its aids with this ministry.
The government’s policy towards the refugees in the neighboring countries
In 2015, the Afghan refugees in the neighboring countries faced some challenges. These challenges included the forced deportation of the refugees from Iran and Pakistan, the expiration of the date of the registered Afghan refugees’ cards in Pakistan, and the fate of the unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran.
At first, about the forced returning of the Afghan refugees from Pakistan, the Afghan Chief Executive said to the media that the decision about the Afghan refugees in Pakistan would be made soon and that an Afghan delegation was to be sent shortly to discuss the issue with the Pakistani authorities. [2]
During an interview, the Afghan Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi said that the return of the Afghan refugees was in the priorities of the Afghan government and added, “the Afghan government hopes that Pakistan will stop the forced repatriation of the Afghan refugees and this repatriation must occur in a way that the Afghan government be prepared to integrate them in the society.”
Balkhi traveled to Pakistan and Iran and after that the issue of the unregistered Afghan refugees were resolved. Officials in both neighboring countries promised to register the unregistered Afghan refugees and stop their forced deportation from both countries. In addition, the agreement was made to extend the expiry date of the registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan for another two years.
The repatriation of the Afghan refugees from Pakistan was directly in interrelation with the Pak-Afghan relations. Between 2015 and 2016, these relations were tenuous and that is why the flow of the Afghan refugees towards Afghanistan had increased and the Afghan unregistered refugees were not registered, as it was promised, nor was the expiry date of the registered Afghan refugees extended.
The government’s policy towards the Afghan migrants in Europe
Based on the statistics of International Organization for Migration, between January 2015 and January 2016, almost 1.103496 million people had arrived to Europe through illegal paths. The Afghans were the second largest refugee population after Syrians. [3]
In 2015, due to the ongoing war in their respective countries, many people from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and northern and southern Africa headed toward Europe, which caused the “refugee crisis” there. That is why many European countries undertook efforts to deport those migrants that have arrived to Europe due to economical purposes.
Some European countries such as Germany recognize the Afghan refugees as economic migrants and that is why the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last year that her respective government had started discussions with the Afghan government about the repatriation of those Afghan refugees whose application for refuge in Germany was rejected. [4]
The German Federal Minister of Interior Thomas de Maiziere also came to Kabul in an official trip. He said that he had come to an agreement with the Afghan government to return those Afghan migrants in Germany whose refugee applications were rejected. He also added that the Afghans cannot go to Germany as “migrants” because, he said, the situation was relatively good in Afghanistan and there existed safe places in the country. In the meanwhile, the Afghan Minister of Refugees said in an interview, “We have always called on the host countries to consider the situation in Afghanistan and decide about the Afghan refugees considering their individual cases. We have signed no agreement with any country that authorized the forced repatriation of the Afghan refugees.” [5]
Balkhi clarified his stance about the Afghan migrants in Europe saying that his respective ministry would never sign any agreement with any country that entailed the forced repatriation of the Afghan migrants. He added that he would not accept the repatriation of the following five categories of refugees:
First, those who are below the age of 18. Second, the disabled. Third, families that do not have a caretaker. Fourth, households headed by a woman. Fifth, households whose head was accepted as refugee in the host countries. [6]
In the meanwhile, after returning from Europe, the Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs said in the Afghan Parliament that he had clarified to the European countries that the forced repatriation of the Afghan refugees from those countries were not acceptable.
Conclusion
If we evaluate the government’s policy regarding the refugees in the past years, on the one hand, we see that the Minister of Refugees and Repatriation have fulfilled some of his promises such as the development of the five-year strategic plan for the ministry and reaching agreements with the neighboring countries about some of the issues. For instance, the agreement with the Pakistani government about registration of the unregistered Afghan refugees and extension of the expiry date of the refugee cards of the registered Afghan refugees. Overall, there existed criticism about the government’s this policy regarding the refugees because the critics said it was not a fundamental solution.
On the other hand, the Afghan government did not have coordination in some other issues. For example, in an interview during his trip to Europe, the Afghan President had said that he had no sympathy for the Afghan refugees in Europe, while, as mentioned above, the Afghan Minister of Refugees and Repatriations had a different stance regarding the Afghan refugees in Europe.
Therefore, the Afghan parliament criticized the uncoordinated policies of the Afghan government regarding the refugees, which in 2015 and 2016, as they put it, opened the way for discriminatory behavior against the Afghan refugees in Europe.
Moreover, in this regard it should also be noted that the returnees and IDPs are left reliant on their own resources and aids of the foreign humanitarian NGOs.
The End
[1] http://morr.gov.af/fa/news/41816
[2] http://www.khaama.com/persian/archives/22956 and Muhammad Hasan Khetab, Abdullah Concerned about refugees in Pakistan, pajhwok news, feb 16, 2015. See it online: < http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2015/02/16/abdullah-concerned-about-refugees-pakistan>
[3] http://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/situation_reports/file/europe-mediterranean-migration-crisis-response-situation-report-28-january-2016.pdf
[4] https://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/22065-berlin-kabul-start-talks-on-repatriation-of-afghans-merkel
[5] http://www.dw.com/en/afghanistans-minister-of-refugees-no-agreement-on-taking-back-deportees-from-germany/a-19020715
[6] http://www.etilaatroz.com/33616