Rights group says Pakistan forcing Afghan refugees home

In this Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017 photo, an Afghan refugee girl waits with family members for their turn to register as refugees, outside the government registration office, in Peshawar, Pakistan. Rights group says Pakistan is forcing refugees home to an uncertain future and war, while the U.N. refugee agency is complicit, giving them money to return and adding to the pressure to leave the relative safety of Pakistan. Dismissing the criticism, Pakistan says it still hosts the world’s largest long-term refugee population and cites security worries and economic woes as reasons for wanting fewer refugees on its soil. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) In this Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017 photo, an Afghan refugee girl waits with family members for their turn to register as refugees, outside the government registration office, in Peshawar, Pakistan. Rights group says Pakistan is forcing refugees home to an uncertain future and war, while the U.N. refugee agency is complicit, giving them money to return and adding to the pressure to leave the relative safety of Pakistan. Dismissing the criticism, Pakistan says it still hosts the world’s largest long-term refugee population and cites security worries and economic woes as reasons for wanting fewer refugees on its soil. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

By Associated Press February 13, 2017 5 min read

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) – In a scathing indictment of Pakistan’s treatment of Afghan refugees, a human rights group charged Monday that the country is forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees back to their homeland, which is still beset by war and crushing poverty. It also said that a $400 stipend the United Nations refugee agency gives to refugees who return to Afghanistan is tantamount to a bribe to convince reluctant Afghans to leave Pakistan.

“The exodus amounts to the world’s largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times,” the Human Rights Watch report says.

Both the U.N. and Pakistan denied the allegations. In an interview, Indrika Ratwatte, Pakistan’s country representative for the U.N. refugee agency, said there was police harassment and arrests of Afghan refugees in mid-2016, particularly in the border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but it was ended and refugees who returned, went home voluntarily.

“There were incidences of pressure and harassment especially in KP but they were addressed,” said Ratwatte. “But does it amount to forced return. No. it doesn’t.”

Still, the report was harsh in its criticism of the U.N. agency for not condemning what it insisted is Pakistan’s forced return of the refugees.