ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Almost 40 years after seeking sanctuary in Pakistan, Nusheen Bibi lives in fear of being expelled from the only country she has ever known.
Bibi was only three when her family fled the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan — some of more than 6 million Afghan refugees who crossed into neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
They soon made a new life in northern Pakistan where Bibi grew up, got married and eventually gave birth.
But growing animosity toward Afghan refugees combined with a push from the Pakistani government to repatriate thousands of Afghans has left the 40-year-old feeling vulnerable.
Under Pakistan’s laws, a foreign woman can acquire Pakistani citizenship by marrying a local man, but Bibi has never done the paperwork to change her nationality.
“I can’t even think about leaving Pakistan,” the mother of five told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in her home, a small mud house.
“How can I leave my children, husband and entire family of in-laws?” said Bibi, who asked that her real name not be used.
Pakistan has some 1.5 million registered refugees, one of the largest such populations in the world, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). More than a million others are estimated to live there unregistered.
Although repatriation is not compulsory, Islamabad has stepped up pressure to send people back and numbers have risen sharply in recent months as Afghan-Indian relations strengthened and those between India and Pakistan soured.
UNHCR said 67,057 refugees were permanently repatriated in August, up from 12,962 the month before.
In all, more than 380,000 registered Afghan refugees have returned home in 2016 so far, with more than 1.4 million still remaining in Pakistan, UNHCR said. — Reuters
