More than 1.2 million Afghan refugees remained in Pakistan in 1998. Pakistan also hosted more than 15,000 refugees from Indian-controlled Kashmir, and some 2,400 refugees from other countries, including 900 from Somalia, 900 from Iraq, and 500 from Iran. According to UNHCR, some 93,000 Afghans repatriated from Pakistan voluntarily during 1998, as did 15 Somalis. A total of 1,175 refugees resettled from Pakistan to third countries during the year, including more than 700 Iranians, 230 Iraqis, and some 200 Afghans, mostly women at risk.

Refugees from Afghanistan

In 1996, UNHCR determined that some 1.2 million Afghan refugees, including previously unregistered refugees, were living in Pakistan. Approximately 2 million other Afghan refugees who had been living in Pakistan repatriated between 1989, when Soviet troops withdrew, and 1995. At the end of 1998, UNHCR continued to estimate the Afghan refugee population at approximately 1.2 million.

There were no reliable estimates of how many Afghan refugees entered Pakistan during the year. However, according to UNHCR, in late 1998 more than 20,000 Afghans (mainly ethnic Tajiks and Hazaras, particularly women at risk), fled to Pakistan during the Taliban's offensive against Mazar-e Sharif and other northern towns. UNHCR said that many new arrivals were "seriously traumatized due to the tragic events they had witnessed.

Approximately two-thirds of the Afghans lived in refugee villages that appeared much like other rural villages in Pakistan. They were able to move freely in Pakistan and work wherever they could find jobs. Food assistance to the general refugee population ended in 1995. Approximately ten percent of the refugee population, particularly widows and disabled persons, remained vulnerable.

Afghan refugees in Pakistan who criticized the Taliban faced harsh treatment. According to Amnesty International, there was "an alarming number of attacks" on Afghans in late 1998. A "hit list" of Taliban critics began circulating in mid-1998. Four Taliban opponents were killed in November, and another in July. Amnesty said that "Pakistani authorities are reported not to have taken serious measures to investigate" the attacks.

Afghan women refugees in Quetta made several attempts to hold demonstrations to urge the international community to focus on the plight of Afghan women. They held one rally in January 1998, but other attempts were disrupted or blocked by the Taliban and its supporters. Taliban members attacked women who participated in a rally in Quetta in mid 1998, and the women were obliged to cancel a planned rally in December after the Taliban again threatened to attack them and break their legs. The local police said that they could not guarantee the women adequate protection. The Taliban spokesman who telephoned the threat to a local newspaper reportedly said that Taliban law, which forbids women from leaving their houses without their husbands, was applicable to all Afghans irrespective of where they lived.

Afghan Repatriation

Some 93,000 Afghan refugees repatriated during 1998, a slight increase over 1997. Repatriation efforts were temporarily set back in August and September because the UN had to remove most of its foreign staff from Afghanistan following the U.S. air attack on an alleged terrorist base in Afghanistan.

Although most Afghan refugees remaining in Pakistan were reluctant to repatriate, many were from eastern provinces of Afghanistan that were generally calm in 1998. The main deterrent to their repatriation may have been the fragile situation in Afghanistan. The largely subsistence agriculture economy of the eastern provinces was depressed and increasingly devoted to drug production; men continued to be recruited for war; health care and education for women were substantially reduced in Taliban-controlled territory, particularly in the cities; and clearance of the country's estimated ten million landmines proceeded slowly. Another factor deterring repatriation may be that an entire generation of Afghans has been born in Pakistan and may have no desire to return to a home they have never seen.

Kashmiris

Conflict in Kashmir dating back to the partition of India in 1947 has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. An unknown number of Kashmiris have fled into Pakistan or areas of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan since 1947. Some 15,000 have fled since 1971. More than 350,000 Kashmiris are internally displaced in India. Kashmiri Muslim sources say that thousands of Kashmiri Muslims have also migrated abroad, mostly to Britain, as a result of the conflict in Kashmir.

During British colonial rule in India, Kashmir was a quasi independent state with a majority Muslim population and a Hindu ruler. Upon partition, a dispute arose over whether Kashmir would join Pakistan or India. Following a complex series of events, part of Kashmir came under Indian rule and became the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, part came under direct Pakistani rule, and part came under indirect Pakistani rule. India promised the Muslim majority in Indian-ruled Kashmir autonomy, but never fulfilled that promise.

The conflict in Kashmir, between the Indian armed forces and Muslim separatists seeking union with Pakistan or an independent Kashmir, has been characterized by widespread human rights abuses by all sides.

The more than 15,000 refugees from Indian Kashmir who have fled to Pakistan since 1971 are living in about ten camps in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, known as Azad and Jammu Kashmir. The Azad and Jammu Kashmir authorities are responsible for their welfare. Neither the government of Pakistan nor the UN Secretary General has asked UNHCR to intervene with this population. UNHCR reports that, according to Pakistan's Ministry of Kashmiri Affairs, the Azad and Jammu Kashmir authorities provide the refugees (whom Pakistan sometimes refers to as displaced persons) cash assistance totaling about 2,600 rupees ($57) per month for a family of four. The refugees are not permitted to leave the camps without authorization.

Kashmiris who entered Pakistan or Pakistancontrolled Kashmir from Indian-controlled Kashmir before 1971 were offered land, assistance, and citizenship by Pakistan.

Somalis, Iraqis, Iranians, and Others

According to UNHCR, Pakistan hosted about 2,400 refugees from other countries, including 900 Somalis, 900 Iraqis (mostly Kurds), 500 Iranians (virtually all Baha'is), and 100 others in 1998. Pakistan does not permit any individual to enter who does not have valid travel documents and a Pakistan visa. The Pakistani authorities turn back or detain all others. UNHCR is able to obtain the release of those who are seeking asylum.

Pakistan regards all refugees, including those recognized by UNHCR, as illegal aliens. It allows UNHCRrecognized refugees to remain pending repatriation or third-country resettlement, but does not permit them to work or to receive free health care or education. According to UNHCR, the agency provides the refugees financial assistance, medical care, education scholarships for the children, and seeks one of the above durable solutions for them.

Repatriation is impossible for Iranian Baha'is, many of whom have been resettled from Pakistan to the United States and Australia. Some Iraqi Kurds wish to repatriate, but Iran, through which they would need to transit to return to Iraqi Kurdistan, often denies them transit visas. Iran, which hosts a large Iraqi Kurd population, also does not permit the return to Iran of Iraqi Kurds who had lived in Iran before entering Pakistan.

During 1998, UNHCR reported that 1,175 refugees resettled in third countries, including 726 Iranians (mostly Baha'is), 232 Iraqis, and 209 Afghans (mostly women at risk).

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