By Asadullah Raisani
I was 11 (in 2007) when I first time heard my father saying, “He is a Afghan refugee,” while pointing toward a boy. The boy seemed of my age and a local Pashtun had hired him to wash his dishes and serve plain potato rice to his customers. The cart was located near the Russian Market at Masjid Road, Quetta.
I did not bother to ask my father what a refugee is. I heard this term many times over the years. These refugees have brought black money here; these refugees have started buying the properties of our ancestors; these refugees have penetrated every field, and yes, they should go back.
I thought the same way that these Afghan refugees should immediately go back until I encountered an Afghan teenage bike mechanic, Bashir, in winter last year. While tuning my motorcycle Basheer shared how his father got martyred in the USA’s war on terror when he was only five. He shared that his father was a sympathizer of the USA against the Taliban and he was most probably killed by the Taliban.
He was not certain about the murderers of his father. Then his maternal uncle along with his family, took Bashir, his mother, and younger brother and came to Pakistan. His uncle intended to find a job in Karachi but they could not manage to go to Karachi. They lived in Chaman for some time, then in Kuchlak, and then finally settled in Quetta.
He shared that his younger brother works in a bakery on Zarghoon Road. Both brothers do not remember anything about their home, and both can neither read nor write. In short, Bashir and his family have no hopes of a better life back home, that is, in Afghanistan. For them, Quetta is their world.
There are millions of such people with millions of such stories that the world has not heard about, as the total number of displaced people globally has reached 100 million. A great majority of these 100 million do not see any positive prospects back home.
The recent data reveals the unwelcoming, sometimes inhuman behaviour of the host communities with these refugees. For instance, one in five women refugees experiences sexual violence. However, if given basic education and market-required skill set, women refugees alone can contribute over $1.4 trillion to the global annual GDP.
Overall, there are some one million forced Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh, over 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, and almost the same number of undocumented Afghan refugees, living in Pakistan.
Approximately 800,000 Afghan refugees are hosted by Iran; and Lebanon, a war-torn country itself, hosts around 1.5 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees. These numbers are horrifying as even developed states like the USA and the UK are reluctant to accept refugees beyond a certain number each year. How then is it expected from the developing nations to share their resources with more people when they are already struggling to justly distribute resources among their own population?
There is a need to have a better and long-term mechanism to equip these refugees with basic education and market-required skills so that they can contribute to society. In the meantime, efforts should be made to restore stability and peace in the conflicted areas so that these refugees can go back home and help improve things there too.
For these refugees to contribute to the host and then home communities, their documentation should be made easy, and their refugee identity cards or such types of identity documents should get renewed every 12 months. This process can immediately start in developed countries; however developing states can take some time to initiate the issuance of such cards.
People with such cards or documents should be provided basic incentives and free basic medical facilities with the help of INGOs and NGOs to ensure their physical, mental, and financial well-being. Second, they should be given at least basic education. They should at least know how to read and write. Their basic degree should be matric if not more than that. This will ultimately empower them to either go for further studies or learn a skill.
Third, they should also be given market-required skills for online as well as offline modes of earning. Polytechnic institutes, English coaching centres, and computer learning institutions should be promoted in host communities, especially in areas where a great number of refugees are settled.
Fourth, inclusivity is necessary for such refugees who hardly manage to make ends meet. A great majority of them learn skills to earn a respected livelihood and contribute to society. They should be seen as assets and not liabilities.
They should be backed by the governments of host communities, as well as by INGOs and NGOs to support them in mastering their skill sets. Still, things may not remain steady as a great number of host communities are already struggling in many ways.
Therefore, in the meantime, efforts should be made to bring negative peace in conflict or war-torn states. In sum, the 11-year-old kid serving plain potato rice to his master`s customers, Bashir, and his younger brother, who work on daily or weekly wages, have hardly anything left behind at home.
Their inclusivity in the social structure of the host states can give them hope away from home. Their rights and inclusivity can be ensured by first and foremost certifying their existence by providing them with legal documents in host countries.
The provision of basic facilities, education, and proper skills will not only assure their inclusivity in any society in the world but will also empower them to contribute to the reconstruction of their homeland once the dust starts settling there.
Asadullah Raisani is a Research Officer at Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN), Quetta.