Introduction

In April 1992, another bloody phase of the Afghan tragedy started, one that has led to the current fighting. These dramatic events plummeted Afghanistan into ethnic/linguistic/religious sectarian conflict and warfare. Consequently, massive migration resulted which aligned regions with a particular ethnic group.

This has led to mass refugee flights from villages to urban cities, from cities to refugee camps, from refugee camps to the shanty camps in the borderland areas of Afghanistan-Iran, Afghanistan-Pakistan, Afghanistan-Tajikistan, and Afghanistan-Uzbekistan. "Refugees from Afghanistan represent the largest single concentration of refugees in the world today" (Smyser, 1987, P.72). Most of Afghanistan's refugees inhabit camps in Iran, Pakistan, India, and the Central Asian neighboring countries.

The background and origins of the refugees has changed over the years. The first to come in 1978 were members of the extended Afghan royal family, their associates, and political allies. Almost all resettled in third countries. By the mid-1980s, most refugees in Pakistan were rural, nonliterate pastoralists and farmers. The refugees who fled from Kabul in the 1990s included educated urban bureaucrats, uneducated laborers and high profile officials. Most of the latter were immediately given asylum in third countries. By 1996 the majority of arrivals were highly urbanized, skilled professionals and technocrats. In Pakistan they sit idle, representing a tragic waste of scarce human resources at the very moment in the nation's history when their skills are so desperately needed for reconstruction” (Library of Congress, 2001).

This brief article should serve as an overview on refugees who are in camps and other areas within Afghanistan. Through my research, I found many issues and problems with this phenomenon, which will be briefly addressed herein or listed as discussion questions at the end.

Who is a refugee?

According to Loescher (1994), the 1951 United Nations Convention define a refugee as "any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country" (P.2). This description means that a person must cross his/her national borders into another land, in order, to be identified as a refugee.

However, many see problems with this narrow and outdated definition because many people in the last quarter century fled not because of individual persecution but because of the all around effects of war. Furthermore, large numbers of politically oppressed and displaced people within a country do not fall into this antiquated definition of 1951.

"Non-convention refugees are not adequately protected by present international norms - a situation that brings to question whether or not the current UN definition of refugee should be changed in order to respond to contemporary needs" (Leoscher, 1994, P.5). Nonetheless, the 1992 appointment of a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons was a landmark (Ibeanu, 1998) event.

There are differences in the legal definition of internally displaced people due to armed conflict in a country and others who cross international border to become international refugees. However the situation and problems of the two groups are very similar (Lee, 1996). At most times the situations of those internally displaced people are more serious because they receive meager attention and assistance from international organizations.

Internal Refugees

Internal refugees are commonly referred to as IDP (Internally Displaced People). Given all these challenges, very limited literature and research exists on internal refugees. According to the UNHCR (1997), there is also virtually no thought given to the question of when a person ceases being internally displaced.

"Internally displaced are the forgotten half of the millions of people who have been forced to migrate from their area of customary habitation" (Bascom, 1999, P.33). Since displacement and migration are war induced, people are not truly prepared socially, culturally, and economically for the new living conditions.

"A critical weakness of the international humanitarian system is that at present there is no special international organization to protect and assist the world's 25 million internally displaced persons" (Loescher, 1984, P.10). Although internal refugees are not a new phenomenon, many in the world community deem it someone else's problem. An example of this attitude is the recent closing of the Afghan borders to Iran and Pakistan. This strategy primarily serves to keep out asylum-seekers. IDPs or Internally Displaced Persons are estimated at about one million. UNHCR, ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross ) and NGO (Non-governmental Organization) assisted camps were established in and around Jalalabad in the east, at Pul-i-Khumri, Mazar-i- Sharif and Kunduz in the north, and in Herat in the west. Other IDPs survived on the goodwill and support systems of local rural communities. This stretched the resources of towns and rural areas throughout the country, especially south and north of Kabul and in the Hazarajat. These movements could bring about changes in demographic balances with untold consequences ” (Library of Congress, 2001).

The Afghanistan Case

The major factors involved in Afghanistan's internal displacement of its population are: 1) Economic issues such as the drought and food scarcity; 2) Environmental issues such as loss of dwelling, clean water, and landmines; 3) Political refuge from the persecution and the crossfire casualty of war.

Unfortunately, neither the Kabul administration nor regional warlords were able to effectively rise above, mediate and manage their conflict by non-violent means. "Instead, the state itself has become an instrument used in the name of regional, ethnic, religious, class, and other special interests" (Ibeanu, 1998, P. 163). The result was the multiplication of problems in part due to the existing displacement factors.

The post-1992 fighting saw the development of internal refugee camps as an exacerbation of the Afghan conflict. Most recently, between 1996-1997, fighting continued to displace large numbers of people within Afghanistan: "many villagers were also forced out of their homes and herded into Kabul. The total number of internal displaced Afghans stood in the region of 1.2 million by mid-1997" (UNCHR, 1997, P.107).

Residents of the urban and village districts have all desperately sought help from UN camps in western and northern Afghanistan. Many do not have enough to eat, drink, or purchase proper clothing and their loved ones who are weak, old, or infant die along the roads. Make-shift graveyards mark the road to these camps. "Unlike the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Kosovo to neighboring Albania … [Afghans are] not greeted with bottled water, apples, oranges and blankets when they arrive at Camp Maslakh" (Mendenhall, 2001). Once they have arrived, they find their arrival in the camp did not promise an end to suffering. A woman resident of Camp Maslakh, Hur says, "We have nothing. We don't have flour. Our kids are dying from hunger and thirst. Give me some food or kill me" (Mendenhall, 2001). Having barbed wire refugee camps reminiscent of the camps of Aushwitz does not help with refugee morale either.

There are currently three major internal refugee camps in Afghanistan's borderland areas: Camp Maslakh in the west, Nasir Bagh in the east, and Jalozai in the northeast. The latest camp at Mahkaki, north of the Afghan town of Zaranj, was set up October 20, 2001 and already shelters some 3,000 refugees. Also, the UNHCR pitched some 100 tents at Killi Haji Faizo village near the border town of Chaman, bordering Pakistan.

"The Afghan refugee crisis now threatens to explode into the worst humanitarian debacle since the Rwandan genocide. Almost 4 million Afghans have been uprooted by war and drought. Food and medical assistance are in the short supply; delivery is being hindered by…fighting. Pakistan, host to 2.5 million Afghans, wants to repatriate refugees to a land that cannot absorb them" (Benjamin, 2001). Most experts are fearful that the upcoming winter will take the lives of many Afghans in the refugee camps. According to Laroche (2001), this winter alone an estimated 100,000 children will die based on the estimate that 300,000 children have died each year.

"If you are a child born in Afghanistan today, you are twenty-five times more likely to die before the age of five than an American or French or Saudi Arabian child. Every thirty minutes a young Afghan mother dies giving birth, leaving children with an irreplaceable void. And more than half of all Afghan children today are malnourished." These are the results of preventable causes such as severe malnutrition, non-vaccination, they have no shelter from the climatic conditions, and the possibility of rations not making it to the camps on time.

The president of CARE USA, Peter Bell, advises: "It is much more effective to respond to the crisis at the point of the origin, not in Pakistan. In a certain sense, it's already too late by the time they get to Pakistan" (AJC, 2001). These are preventable deaths!

Conclusion

According to Findlay (1993), the Afghanistan case serves well to illustrate ways in which refugee events have altered since the 1951 establishment of the UNHCR. Three differences exist: 1) Afghans moved as a result of group rather individual decisions. Not only tribal leaders, but also political groupings have strongly determined Afghan refugee movements, 2) Unlike most refugee flows involving Europe, Afghans sought refuge in less development countries such as Iran and Pakistan, 3) Increased inequality among host nations to the Afghans have resulted in migration to attain a survival standard of living.

“Not long ago, Afghans were hailed in the Western press as the romantic heroes of the 20th century. Now they are considered invading refugees, perceived in some circles to be at best a burden on any Western society that would take them in, or at worst terrorist who will blow up the people who host them” (Zamani, 2001).

According to Ibeanu (1998), an end to the problems of population displacement calls for the democratization of the state as means of controlling its aggression towards its own people: "A democratic state can be an instrument for promoting equitable resource distribution and conflict resolution among communal and other sectional interests. There is also need for a progressive humanitarian policy that links material assistance and protection to the general economic development of the country. These are possible only with the active engagement of the international community" (P. 178).

Afghans have fought many battles in the last two decades. Now they fight for self-determination, civil liberties and basic human necessities such as food and shelter. The international commitment to provide humanitarian relief is appreciated but much more remains to be done.

“Tens of thousands of old and new Afghan refugees remain trapped by the political stalemate between their homeland and their sanctuary, clinging to a precarious existence in Pakistan [and Iran] but praying they will not be forced back to an even more dire rate in Afghanistan” (Constable, 2001, P. A14).

At present, more than ever, Afghans deserve the continued help of the international community as they begin the difficult process of reclaiming their nation, feeding their children, removing landmines, resettling the refugees, and most importantly building an infrastructure before the refugees are forcefully repatriated. I will close with a quote from Ahmad Hussein, a 12-year-old internally displaced Afghan child: "My greatest wish is to be happy, to learn to read and write, to have warm shoes and eat as much as I want to. I want to return home" (Internally Displaced Global Overview).

Discussion Questions

• IDP means that they are displaced but will they be provided dwellings and return to their customary lives?
• What will the UN do for the right to return, the rights of women, the rights of minorities, human rights, and prevention of further genocide and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan?
• How will the UNHCR balance the concerns of its donors with the humanitarian concerns?
• How much of the displacement in Afghanistan is anchored in oil politics and ethnic partisanship?
• Why were no peace, repatriation, and reconstruction processes implemented at the end of the Cold War?
• Why did the humanitarian supports scale down assistance to Afghans at the end of the Cold War?
• Why does international donations average about $5 person for Afghanistan while Kosovo refugees averaged $100 per person?
• Why didn't the UNCHR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ) register new refugee arrivals into Iran and Pakistan?
• How are food, clothing and other humanitarian deliveries being increased before the onset of winter?
• Given the border closure, how can the plight of those fleeing the war be eased?
• What are the plans for distributing relief within Afghanistan? |

References