Migration Category: news-1-5000-global

Afghan refugees living in Pakistan face severe consequences if they outwardly criticize the Taliban regime, which has instituted a brutal system of gender apartheid. Human Rights organizations fear that last months shooting of an Afghan writer living in Pakistan is not an isolated incident and that extremist groups, with a presence inside Pakistan, are preparing to target a long list of Afghan’s known to oppose the Taliban. Furthermore, Pakistan’s recent deportation, in violation of agreed standards with the UNHCR, of Taliban critic Mohammad Enam Wak, sends a dangerous signal on Pakistani policy towards Afghan refugees. Afrasiab Kattak, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan was quoted, “It appears the whole world has turned their back on the Afghans. These refugees are living in a vacuum and are terribly vulnerable.”

Amnesty International has reported that Pakistan has recently deported former Kabul University Professor Mohammad Rahim Elham in violation of an agreement between Pakistani government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for joint assessment of Afghan refugee claims prior to deportation. Elham’s whereabouts are currently unknown, and human rights activists are alarmed. He was turned over to the Taliban on June 21. Other Afghan intellectuals currently living in Pakistan are fearful for their safety. Amnesty International reports that the Taliban has tortured dozens of intellectuals who have openly advocated ending Afghanistan’s internal “holy war” and establishing a new government that represents and addresses the concerns of all ethnic groups.

Thirty-eight Afghan passengers from a jet hijacked in February who were denied asylum in Britain by Home Secretary Jack Straw began their appeal yesterday. The hearings involved 32 Afghan men and women and six children.

Shaw refused asylum to the passengers on the grounds that they faced no danger of persecution in their home country. Straw has previously denied any attempt to prejudice the 69 asylum applications received by Parliament.

Barry Stoyle, director of the Refugee Legal Center, which is providing attorney’s for many of the refugees, said that Straw’s decision would force the asylum-seekers to return “to a country with no constitution, rule of law or independent judiciary and which commits human rights abuses on a massive scale.”

To say that Afghans face no persecution in Afghanistan is to ignore the fact that the Taliban militia, which controls 90 percent of Afghanistan, has imposed a strict system of gender apartheid against all women living in areas controlled by the Taliban. The Taliban’s edicts, which have been brutally enforced, banish most women from the work force, closed schools to girls and expelled women from universities, and prohibited women from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative.