Civil society urges NCHR to help resolve Afghan refugees’ issues

ISLAMABAD: A civil society delegation urged the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) to play its role in addressing issues surfacing after caretaker government’s order to illegal immigrants for leave the country by November 1.

The delegation comprising politicians Farhatullah Babar, Afrasiab Khattak, Senator Mushtaq Ahmad, HR activists Saba Gul Khattak, Barrister Umer Gilani, Amina Masood Janjua and Advocate Imran Shafi presented a formal petition to the NCHR chairperson in her office on Thursday. The petitioners said early this month, the unelected caretaker government took everyone by surprise when going well beyond its mandate – to carry out elections – it took a U-turn and rolled back Pakistan’s 40-year-old policy regarding protecting refugees – documented as well as undocumented ones. The move violated court judgments, the tripartite agreement between Pakistan, UNHCR and Afghanistan, international treaties signed and ratified by Pakistan and recommendations made by the Human Rights Committee of the National Assembly late last year, it said. It also went against the GSP plus regime under which Pakistan had earned the facility of preferential exports to the EU countries. As a result of this the police started to hound Afghan refugees amid widespread reports of harassment, bribery and extortion, the petitioners contended. The petitioners urged to restrain the Federation from detaining, forcefully deporting Afghan asylum-seekers who either possess a POR (proof of registration card), ACC (Afghan citizen card) or whose application for asylum is still pending before UNHCR as endorsed by the courts and also to direct the UNHCR to expeditiously process asylum-seeking applications, especially Afghan HR defenders.