14.11.2023
1.7 Million Afghan Refugees Forced To Leave Pakistan Say They Have Nothing
Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban in 2021 scrambled to leave Pakistan on Tuesday, hours before the end of a deadline after which Islamabad plans to arrest or deport undocumented immigrants, a move that has drawn international criticism and fears of a humanitarian crisis. The Pakistan government has set November 1 as the deadline for around 1.7 million undocumented Afghan nationals living in the country. Reportedly, besides the Afghan refugees in Pakistan but also members of other persecuted communities including China’s Uyghurs and Myanmar’s Rohingya. Thousands of Afghans affected by the decision have been living in Pakistan for decades. They consider Pakistan to be their home. Forcing them to leave Pakistan means that they are at imminent risk of being rendered homeless and losing their livelihoods. Furthermore, there are groups of people who are at a particular risk if pushed back to the Taliban-run Afghanistan. Furthermore, as Amnesty International indicated, the deportation of Afghans to Pakistan “would particularly put women and girls in grave danger as they would be exposed to persecution and other serious human rights violations simply because of their sex and their gender. For an overwhelming majority of them living and studying in Pakistan may be their only chance of gaining a formal education. A significant number of Afghan refugees including journalists, human rights defenders, women protestors, artists, and former government officials and security personnel would also be at imminent risk of persecution and repression by the Taliban, if forced to return to Afghanistan.” Credit: AFP
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
