The Legal Status of Afghan Refugees and Peace Building in Pakistan on the Touch-Stone of International Refugee Law

Abstract

Refugees are also human beings the must be treated as a human in first instance without any discrimination. Our capacity for sympathy is only damaged when we strip individuals of their humanity, when we cease to consider other people to be fully human in the same way that we are; in other words, when we stop thinking that other people are just like us. More than 25% of existing refugees live in Pakistan, and most have lived in Pakistan for more than 25 years. Pakistan hasn't signed or ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 Refugee Protocol. In order to be considered a refugee, a person must have a reasonable fear that they will be subjected to persecution if they are forced to return to their place of origin or their country of habitual residence. This fear must be connected to one or more of the five reasons outlined in Article 1A (2) of the 1951 Convention, which are as follows: religion, nationality, race, social background group, or political opinion. There is no reason to presume that Afghan refugees will automatically have legal status, but during the first two decades in Pakistan, they were initially regarded as refugees. This article describes the legal status of Afghan refugees due to several agreements with Pakistan, the UNHCR, and, rarely, Afghanistan.