Stranded Pakistanis - Refugee Crisis

Refugee Crisis

The Biharis were left behind after the Pakistani army evacuated. They found themselves unwelcome in Bangladesh for having opposed its liberation, and Pakistan feared a mass influx of Biharis could destabilize its fragile and culturally mixed population, which shared no similarity with Bihar. Also, the Pakistani government believed that since Bangladesh was the successor state of East Pakistan, it had to absorb these refugees just as Pakistan (West) did with the many millions of refugees (including 200,000 Bengalis) who had fled to West Pakistan. Some groups in Pakistan have urged the Pakistan government to accept the Biharis.

Surur Hoda, a Socialist leader, played an active part in solving the refugee crisis. He organized a powerful delegation, headed by British Labour Party politician david Ennals and Ben Whitaker, which encouraged many refugees to return to Pakistan. In an agreement in 1974, Pakistan accepted 170,000 Bihari refugees; however, the repatriation process has since stalled.

According to M.Z. Azam, Chairman Sardar Bahadur Non-Local Camp, Jautala, Pahartali, Chittagong Post-independence Bangladesh scorned the Biharis for having allegedly supporting the Pakistani army. With neither country offering citizenship, the Biharis have remained stateless for 36 years. Organisations such as Refugees International have urged the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh to "grant citizenship to the hundreds of thousands of people who remain without effective nationality".

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is not addressing the plight of the Biharis. In 2006 a report estimated that between 240,000 and 300,000 Biharis live in 66 crowded camps in Dhaka and 13 other regions across Bangladesh. In 2003, a case came before a high court in which ten Biharis were awarded citizenship according to the court's interpretation of the constitution. So far, however, little progress has been made in expanding that ruling to others. Many Pakistanis and international observers believe the plight of the Biharis has been politicized, with political parties giving the refugees false hopes and impractical expectations. In recent years, several court rulings in Bangladesh have awarded citizenship to Biharis living in Bengali refugee camps, as the majority of these refugees were born there. International observers believe that Bangladesh, as the successor state, needs to fulfill its international obligations and grant citizenship to this officially stateless ethnic group, or arrange for the peaceful repatriation to their native state of Bihar, India.

In a visit to Bangladesh in 2002, Pakistani president Musharraf said that, while he had every sympathy for the plight of the 'stranded Pakistanis', he could not allow them to emigrate to Pakistan. He said his country was in no position to absorb so many refugees who shared no linguistic, cultural, or historical ties with Pakistan. (This is odd, since they are Urdu-speaking Muslims, so do share some commonalities.)

He encouraged his Bengali counterpart to accept the refugees as citizens of the successor state of East Pakistan. Pakistani government officials have threatened to deport the more than 1.5 million illegal Bengali refugees living illegally in Pakistan if the issue is not resolved acceptably.