Pakistan’s president: Hosting Afghan refugees deeply impacted our economy

Pakistani President Arif Alvi said his country has carried a huge burden in hosting Afghans for nearly four decades.

In an interview with VOA Urdu, Alvi defended Islamabad’s decision to expel Afghans living in Pakistan without proper documents.

He said giving refuge to citizens of the neighboring country had deeply affected his own country’s economy.

“I think that it’s a huge burden for Pakistan. We have given refuge to 3.5 million people for 30, 40 years. They are our Afghan, Muslim brothers, and this deeply impacted our economy, our livelihood. Because when all of these people got jobs, Pakistan’s workforce is 80 to 100 million, and out of those, 3.5 million are Afghans.”

Alvi also said that hosting Afghan refugees affected Pakistan’s culture.

“It is said that the Kalashnikov culture here increased with the presence of Afghans,” Alvi said, referring to the mass inflow of weapons into Pakistan in the aftermath of the Soviet war in Afghanistan nearly three decades ago.

Citing security concerns, Pakistan in early October ordered people of all nationalities residing illegally in the country to leave voluntarily or face a crackdown after November 1. Since then, over 300,000 Afghans have left the country.

Alvi complained that the international community had not provided Pakistan with sufficient support to host one of the world’s largest refugee populations.

“The world makes promises to cooperate when refugees arrive, but nobody has given any cooperation,” he said.

Islamabad accuses the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) of providing a haven to the banned militant outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, responsible for many of the attacks in Pakistan. IEA, however, deny the charge and say Pakistan is blaming them for its internal “failure.”