Karachi Afghans reluctant to repatriate

For 63-year-old Gul Bibi, returning to her homeland couldn’t be more natural. Arriving in the southern port city of Karachi 20 years earlier, she now hopes to start her life anew with her children in Afghanistan’s northern Konduz province. “I believe in God. I believe our future will be brighter in Afghanistan,” the mother of nine and widow told IRIN outside her simple mud-brick home in Jadeed, a multi-ethnic makeshift community of 30,000 Afghans in the dusty Gadap township of Karachi. But most Afghans in Pakistan’s largest city don’t share her optimism. “When there is complete stability then I will return,” Abdul Manan, a 95-year-old Pashtun elder, told IRIN outside Jadeed’s local mosque, citing a lack of jobs and instability as the primary impediments to his return. His peers nodded in agreement. “Most people are not ready to return,” Haji Ashoor Baig, another long-time Jadeed resident and Uzbek elder added. “Right now I don’t have any plans to go back. There are no jobs for my children. What will we do if we go there?” he asked. Such sentiment is telling and indicative of what most Afghans in Pakistan’s bustling former capital are thinking. Those who wanted to return have done so, with those remaining still waiting to see what happens. “Most of the Afghans in Karachi today are taking ‘a wait-and-see’ approach towards developments in their homeland,” Kazuhiro Kaneko, head of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Karachi, told IRIN. Although the vast majority of Afghans in Pakistan today – estimated at over 2 million – live in refugee camps, many still live in large urban areas of the country, including Karachi. Earlier government estimates put their numbers in the city at some 500,000, with UNHCR assisting 250,000 to return following the launch of its voluntary repatriation programme in March 2002. However, following a UNHCR and government census in February yet to be released, that number has been revised downwards. “There are over 100,000 Afghans in Karachi today,” Kaneko estimated. “Of these, we expect 40,000 to 50,000 will return this year.” Most Afghans in the city, who unlike those living in refugee camps have not received UNHCR assistance, work as cheap, unskilled labourers. With limited job prospects, they remain concerned over what awaits them should they return, underscoring what the UN and others have long maintained: for return to be sustainable, further investment in Afghanistan’s long-term reconstruction and security will be needed.

UNHCR office head Kazuhiro Kaneko explains to local Afghans the choices ahead

In short, despite the large numbers that have returned, as well as the significant developments that have occurred inside the country, UNHCR acknowledges that voluntary repatriation is not yet a viable, durable solution for all Afghans in Pakistan. “Most people want to go, but want for things to improve inside the country,” Mohammad Dawood, a 25-year-old Afghan student and pharmacy worker in Jadeed, told IRIN. According to UNHCR, since the start of its voluntary repatriation effort in March 2002, some 2.2 million Afghans have returned to their homeland. Some 384,032 refugees opted to repatriate in 2004 with UNHCR assistance, in contrast to the previous year’s 343,074. But while 2002 was marked by an unprecedented number of returns, with UNHCR helping nearly 1.6 million Afghans return from Pakistan, the guiding principle over the past two years has been gradualism, keeping in mind the limited absorption capacity of the country. In March, some 1,000 Afghans from Karachi may return, Kaneko believed, noting he expected 7,000 to 8,000 would return each month in April, May, June and July. “Repatriation is very much dependent on the weather,” the seasoned UN official explained. “But we are here to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of all who wish to do so.” Meanwhile, back in Jadeed, where over one-third of the community’s population has already left, the debate to return or not continues. Gul Bibi’s son Zulmai tries to share his mother’s optimism but worries about how they will rebuild their lives and their home. “I heard people are paid more in Afghanistan,” the 25-year-old carpet weaver, who currently earns less than US $50 a month to support his family, told IRIN hopefully. But for 28-year-old Asadullah, another carpet weaver from the northern province of Jowzjan, returning to Afghanistan with his two wives seems more unlikely than ever. “After 22 years, Pakistan is the only home I have ever known. There is no job for me there,” he asserted.