South Asia, one of the world’s most densely populated regions, lags behind the developed world owing to various reasons. We are well-aware of the fact that South Asia is globally known for its deep-seated poverty, malnourished populations, high illiteracy levels and other below than average socio-economic indicators. The region also suffers from a never-ending refugee crisis. Considering the perpetuity of the issue, South Asia can frankly be termed as the global refugee headquarters, where almost every country has been dealing with intermittent refugee inflows, one way or the other. Pakistan tops the list of countries hosting refugees, namely Afghans. Pakistan is one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting nations as the country is currently home to an estimated 2.4 million registered and undocumented people from Afghanistan. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, this figure had gone up to 4 million. In his recent visit to Pakistan, UN Secretary General António Guterres recognized Pakistan as being the world’s second largest country after Turkey in terms of hosting refugees. Since 1979, more or less six million people from Afghanistan have crossed the Pakistan border, seeking refuge from the wars in their country that have already completed their fourth decade with no end in sight, despite the signing of a peace accord between the Taliban and the United States. As of June 2019, according to UN statistics, there were an estimated 1,405,715 registered Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. The total count of Afghan refugees reached almost 4 million at the peak of the Afghan wars in the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s. Calling for global attention to resolve the Afghan refugee crisis, the Pakistan government did make some efforts, particularly in the middle of the 2000s, to repatriate refugees to Afghanistan. In association with the UNDP and UNHCR, sporadic repatriation drives were launched that helped repatriate a considerable number of Afghanis, but the task was never completed.

Hosting millions of Afghan refugees already, Pakistan, with its cash-strapped economy, finds itself at a crossroads since there is another refugee crisis raising its head on its eastern border. This refers to recent anti-Muslim legalisation (NRC and CAA), in India. Under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has been making every effort to relegate its over 201 million Muslim population as second-class citizens living in a Hindu-majority state. As things stand, Muslims in India are neither as oppressed as the Rohingya of Myanmar, nor do they face an imminent threat of ethnic cleansing as stateless Palestinians do at the hands of Israel. Still, Muslims in India have been reduced as the most vulnerable minority owing to a Hindutva-dominated mindset that is steering the political direction of the country. Should the trend continue, as it apparently appears to be, there will be a formidable refugee catastrophe emerging this time from India since the country’s current leadership seems so determined to drive a major chunk of its Muslim populations out of the country, through targeted legislation and other coercive means. They intend to exert excessive pressure on Pakistan’s economy by unleashing a fresh wave of refugees to the country that is already struggling with a fragile economy and other socio-economic concerns. Bangladesh is another major country in South Asia that hosts over 0.7 million Rohingya refugees. Commonly referred to as the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs), Rohingya have been forcefully driven out of Myanmar in a slew of ethnic cleansing attempts, particularly over the last couple of decades.

Like Pakistan, Bangladesh is another South Asian country with poor socio-economic growth and is making consistent efforts to uplift its economy through reforms and development programmes. Despite such efforts, Bangladesh seems in no position to effectively handle the looming refugee crisis. The country’s future has been in the balance with no sign of immediate recovery or noticeable relief from refugee flows. The situation in other South Asian countries, such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan, also looks vulnerable, since political uncertainty in the region is ripe with potential refugee crises. Also, the emerging scenario in South Asia’s neighbourhood could get even worse anytime in the future. The world needs to pay attention to this aspect and utilise its best efforts to stop the brewing refugee crisis from metastasizing to other sites. While the developed nations have currently become more xenophobic when it comes to accepting refugees and war-displaced migrants, they must now act more responsibly and proactively to ward off the refugee crisis from becoming a full-blown human catastrophe.

Syed Jawaid Iqbal
President & Editor in Chief