PESHAWAR: As the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul is closed for public, a ‘sea of people’ have gathered at the Spin Boldak border crossing in desperate attempt to escape the Taliban controlled Afghanistan.
Spin Boldak is one of the key crossing points, besides Torkham, between Afghanistan and Pakistan but for the couple of months, the government has sealed them for general public and only bilateral and transit trade vehicles are allowed to cross the border. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has made it clear that the country is not ready to face another influx of refugees from Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been looking after Afghan refugee since 1979 when the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Then, in 2001 when the United States attacked the Taliban regime, another influx of refugees turned towards Pakistan. According to the data provided by UNHCR to Mashriq, currently there are three million Afghan refugees – 1.4 million registered, 880,000 with Afghan citizen cards and about 500,000 unregistered – are residing across Pakistan. Data shows that 4.4 million refugees had left Pakistan after the conditions were improved.
The UNHCR said that a total of 3.6 million peoples have displaced in Afghanistan, including 0.5 million this year. The UNHCR spokesperson Qaiser Afridi urged that the neighboring countries should open their doors for the Afghan refugees as the UN refugee agency is ready to provide every possible support. Afridi said that some 160,000 people – mostly women and children – have also migrated to Kabul from across Afghanistan. Afridi said that refugees living in Pakistan will be facilitated in Pakistan until situation is improved in Afghanistan. He said that so far new refugees have not yet turned towards Pakistan; however, UNHCR will request Pakistan to open its border for the refugees.
He said that the UNHCR is in talks with the government for an effective plan to face the imminent refugee influx, but so for no concrete plan has been chalked out to face such situation. Last month, national security advisor Dr Moeed Yusuf said that the Pakistan will not accept more refugees. The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions has estimated that Pakistan will need 2.2 billion US dollars over the next three years to provide shelter to an estimated 800,000 refugees.
Fading businesses
After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on 15 August, business activities reduced by 80% as banks and other commercial centers are close, causing investors in various sectors to lose millions of dollars. This trend is also snatching the sources of living in the war riddled-Afghanistan.
Billions of dollars have been invested in real estate over the past ten years because of the improved law and order situation in Afghanistan, said Zardad Khan, a real estate investor. He added that now there are no investors and their capital is also not available because of banks closure.
Zardad said that in the last ten years, most of the investment in Afghanistan was in real estate, such as residential plazas and commercial plazas and investor were making hefty profits. But now because of the uncertain situation, business is down by 70 to 90 percent. He added that in addition to real estate, Afghans and foreign investors had set up various industrial units. The units not only helped in manufacturing products locally but also generated the much-needed jobs opportunities.
Wali Stanikzai, who has worked in a local factory, said that he was working with a plastic factory for eight years. He said that it was source of livelihood for his family. Stankzai lamented that now there is uncertainty all around and no one is sure about the reopening of the Industrial units to start earning their living. He lamented that in the current situation, people are forced to sell household items because of unemployment. He added that that in such a situation, the people have no other option but to leave Afghanistan to find a source of living in the neighboring countries.