Date: 2025-10-05 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00025841
PAKISTAN
UNDOCUMENTED AFGHANS
Keeping lights off: Undocumented Afghans go underground in Pakistan
UNDOCUMENTED AFGHANS
Keeping lights off: Undocumented Afghans go underground in Pakistan
Original article:
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I was recruited to be part of a UN team that was to develop a National Plan for Afghan Development following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. The UN team was headed up by Winston Prattley, a New Zealander who had recently retired as a Deputy Secretary General following a very high profile career in trouble spots around the world.
This UN team was based in Islaamabad in Pakistan taking periodic trips cross-border into Afghanistan. In theory our UN team was 'safe' according to law, but whether or not the 'law' would be applied in a remote area of either Pakistan or Afghanistan was unclear.
I had learned about the Khyber Pass during my schooling in the UK, and it was quite exciting to travel by road on this route from Pakistan to Afghanistan. It did not surprise me that the British soldiers were pushed back and essentially gave up and retreated. The topography is very suited for defense, and difficult for offense.
Over the years I did a lot of work for the UN, the World Bank and others in many different parts of the world. One of the commonalities in almost all of this work was the social complexity in all the different places and the way the international 'experts' seemed to be embracing a very simplified version of reality.
This was certainly the case with the international community and Afghanistan. While I did not masquerade as an international expert on Afghanistan in order to be included in the UN team, I was able to learn something about the tribal complexity of the country very quickly as soon as I was in the area and working with people who were part of this society.
One of my memories from this assignment was our UN team having to coordinate with a team that came from the IMF in Washington to assess the economic and financial state of Afghanistan. By this time I had spend about 5 weeks going through a document library or repository of all sorts of material related to the economy of Afghanistan. Quite a lot was in English, but much was not and out local Afghan counterparts worked with us to get some knowledge of what was there and what it said. The 'high level' team from the IMF had not been well briefed on Afghanistan ... actually not briefed at all ... yet they were able to produce a very polished report on the economy of Afghanistan almost immediately after they based themselves in a fancy conference room in Islamabad! It turned out that the quality of their report was going to be assured by the inclusion of an IMF Washington secretary / typist complete with IBM selectric typewriter as a part of their team! The IMF report was beautifully presented. It had all the appearance of a meaningful report ... but the way it was put together was completely ridiculous. If I remember correctly, part of the IMF's conclusion was that Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the Soviets had strong economic potential because it has so little international debt. Well, yes ... this was true that it had rather modest international debt, but it had little or no meaningful economic activity beyond a very meagre subsistance agriculture sector and a quite prosperous poppy export trade.
After about 4 months the team broke up for the Christmas holiday period and never reconvened. President George Bush (senior) pressured the UN to cut back on a lot of international work in order to realise a 'peace dividend' following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and our Afghanisan project was obviously not needed now that the Soviet Union had exited Afghanistan. This is one of very many mistakes that I argue have been made by the USA in almost all parts of the world during the past 60+ years of my adult lifetime
I have done other work for the UN and the World Bank in Pakistan. One of the people from UNHCR that I worked with in Africa became the top person in Palistan running a huge operation connected with the Afghan refugees in Pakistan. This refugee population has become multi-generational and it raises some serious questions about the way the world works ... or doesn't. The more I reflect on the education that rich societies around the world are delivering for the next generation, the more concerned I become. While I understand that the old 'colonial model' or international organization had its problems, the post-colonial model that has emerged may well have much bigger problems. Meanwhile, there is amazing potential for progress, but almost none of the essential institutional infrastructure to enable very progress to be achieved.
Peter Burgess
By Ariba Shahid and Mohammad Yunus Yawar
November 9, 20233:01 AM EST
Pakistan gives last warning to undocumented immigrants to leave, in Karachi
Saleh Zada, 32, a singer and songwriter, who was born in Badakhshan province and later moved to Kabul for his education, plays a music composition on his mobile harmonium app during an interview with Reuters, in Karachi, Pakistan November 4, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro Acquire Licensing Rights
KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov 9 (Reuters) - After living in Pakistan for years, thousands of Afghans have gone into hiding to escape a government order to expel undocumented foreigners because they fear persecution under a Taliban administration in their homeland, rights activists say.
'The gate is locked from the outside... we are locked inside, we can't come out, we can't turn on our lights, we can't even talk loudly,' said a 23-year-old Afghan woman, speaking online from a shelter where she said dozens of others had holed up until earlier this week before moving on to a new hideout.
Local supporters put a lock on the gate so neighbours believe the house is unoccupied, said other inmates.
The woman, who is from the Afghan capital Kabul, said she fears prosecution if she returns to Afghanistan because she converted from Islam to Christianity in 2019 and renunciation of the Islamic faith is a serious offence under the strict Islamic law practised by the Taliban.
She is one of thousands believed by rights activists to be in hiding in Pakistan to avoid deportation under a government push for undocumented migrants to leave the country. That includes over one million Afghans, many of whom the Pakistan government says have been involved in militant attacks and crime.
Authorities began rounding up operations across the country after a deadline for voluntary exits expired on Nov. 1.
Sijal Shafiq, 30, a Karachi-based human rights activist who helped vulnerable Afghans find shelter before Pakistan's new expulsion policy, is one of several petitioners asking the Supreme Court to halt the deportation programme.
'I know several women, girls, who say they would rather die than return under the Taliban,' Shafiq says, adding that they all had professional dreams and ambitions which would be impossible to realise in Afghanistan, where women are forbidden from most jobs and can travel only with a male escort.
There was no immediate comment from a spokesman of the Taliban-run administration on whether those returning would be screened or prosecuted under their laws. Pakistan's foreign and interior ministries also did not respond to requests for comment about exempting at-risk individuals from deportation.
The Pakistani government has so far brushed off calls from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies to reconsider its expulsion plan or to identify and protect Afghans who face the risk of persecution at home.
Western embassies, including the United States, have also provided Pakistani authorities lists of Afghans being processed for possible migration abroad, and asked that they be exempt from expulsion, but the numbers are small compared to the people at risk.
'WORSE THAN PRISON'
Reuters spoke to a dozen undocumented migrants trying to stay under the radar of the nationwide sweep. Because of their situation, they declined to be identified or asked that their full names not be used.
They included a 35-year-old father, also a Christian convert, who fled to Pakistan with his nine-year-old daughter.
Another young girl in the shelter said she fears for her life because she belongs to the ethnic Hazara minority, which has for years faced persecution from hardline Sunni extremists in Afghanistan.
'This is worse than prison,' said a 22-year-old Afghan man who said he ensured the lights remained off at night.
Some locals who are helping the Afghans arrange for food and water to be secretly smuggled into the shelter under the cover of night.
Afghan singer Wafa, 28, fears her days of refuge in Pakistan, where she moved shortly after the Taliban takeover over two years ago, are coming to an end because her visa has expired.
Speaking from a relative's home in Islamabad, she said she hoped that she could either get asylum in France or Canada, or make Pakistan her home, as her profession of singing Pashto songs, which she started 11 years ago, is no longer acceptable in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have banned public music performances.
But she is yet to hear back, and applying for a visa extension remains unaffordable for her family. In the meantime, she does not leave the house to avoid widespread snap checks by Pakistani police.
'I am a singer... I know what will happen to me when I'm back,' Wafa said.
Saleh Zada, a 32-year-old singer in Karachi, said he moved from Afghanistan a year ago.
'I was singing in my village for friends and relatives, we had lots of parties, singing parties,' Saleh Zada said, speaking at a crowded low-income neighbourhood apartment belonging to his relatives. He showed Reuters video clips of him playing the harmonium and rubab, a string instrument, some of which were on social media.
'My family advised me to leave Afghanistan, I feared the Taliban' he says, adding that the fear of being picked up by Pakistani police, because he does not have a valid visa, has kept him indoors for days.
'Life is difficult here (in Pakistan), but I have to save my life.'
Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ariba Shahid ... Thomson Reuters
Ariba Shahid is a journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan. She primarily covers economic and financial news from Pakistan, along with Karachi-centric stories. Ariba has previously worked at DealStreetAsia and Profit Magazine.