Welcome to the October Q4 2023 newsletter from the Asia Displacement Solutions Platform. These newsletters are intended to shine a spotlight on some of the issues being tackled by our members, and the programmatic work done to improve outcomes for persons affected by displacement. We hope you find this newsletter informative. For any questions please…
The De facto Authorities (DfA) imposed restrictions on women and girls’ education in 2022, banning secondary schooling for girls throughout Afghanistan and suspending tertiary education for women. The decreased access of girls to secondary and tertiary education will not only impact girls and women but the Afghan economy as a whole. Restrictions on female education,…
Over the past 40 years, Afghanistan has gone through multiple phases of migration, with Pakistan and Iran being the primary destination for millions of Afghan refugees and other migrants. Initially, Iran and Pakistan both opened their borders to their neighbours and Muslim brothers and sisters. Afghans have crossed and continue to cross these two borders,…
On 26 September 2023, the Ministry of the Interior of the Government of Pakistan issued the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan. According to the proposed plan, it is intended to “regulate the foreigners in Pakistan and to ensure that the foreigners staying illegally or overstaying their visa validity are deported back to their parent countries.” This…
By Dr Sanaa Alimia, Aga Khan University (International), Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations An estimated three to four million Afghans live in Pakistan, mainly in urban areas. These Afghans fall into different legal categories. This paper centres on Afghan registered refugees and undocumented migrants, who form the bulk of the Afghan population in…
By Dr Ceri Oeppen from the Sussex Centre for Migration Research, University of Sussex, UK, and Professor Shahida Aman, Dr Ayub Jan and Professor Abdul Rauf, from the Department of Political Science, University of Peshawar The last 40-plus years have demonstrated the limitations of the traditional ‘three durable solutions’ to displacement for Afghans in Pakistan.1…
This article was originally published in The Diplomat and can be viewed in its original form here. On the world stage, Afghanistan risks becoming a forgotten crisis, despite rising humanitarian needs. But its closest neighbors don’t have the luxury of looking the other way. The economic, humanitarian, and social decline in Afghanistan since the fall…
Pakistan has been hosting Afghan refugees for nearly four decades, with the first wave of refugees arriving in 1979, followed by subsequent influxes in 1992 and 2001. More than 4.4 million Afghans[1] sought refuge in Pakistan between 1979-2001[2], with over 3.2 million refugees in the country at the height of displacement. As a result, Pakistan…
Pakistan is hosting more than 1.44 million registered Afghans1 who have been forced to flee their homes, primarily due to war, internal conflict, insecurity, and persecution. Most refugees live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province, located along the Afghan border2. Of these, 990,947 are registered outside Refugee Villages3 while a further 444,439 are registered inside Refugee…
Strengthening access to refugee education has an untapped potential to create a generation of youth that can contribute to the development of both Pakistan and their homeland Afghanistan, when the situation improves. Pakistan is home to 1.44 million registered Afghan refugees, and a further 600,000 unregistered Afghan refugees, many of whom have been in the…