Kabul, Feb 7 (IANS): Thousands of Afghan families are fleeing Pakistan to escape harassment after a deadly Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December, said the head of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Afghanistan Saturday.
More than 22,000 undocumented Afghans flocked across the border at Torkham -- a major border crossing between the two countries -- in January, more than twice the figure for the whole of 2014, Pakistan Today reported citing Richard Danzinger, IOM’s mission chief in Afghanistan.
“It all started with the attack on the school in Peshawar,” Danzinger said. “When something horrible happens, people start taking it out on foreigners.”
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar Dec 16, killing more than 140 students and staff, prompting Pakistan to step up operations against insurgent hideouts along the border with Afghanistan.
Cooperation between Afghan and Pakistani security forces has also improved since the attack and led to the arrest of suspects in Afghanistan, where officials believe it was planned by the TTP.
Afghans living in Pakistan, however, face a backlash and are reporting incidents of harassment, such as raids on their homes and police coercion, according to the IOM and other officials.
Most of the Afghan families settled in Pakistan decades earlier, Danzinger said, and had nowhere to go once they returned.
“Their lives are in Pakistan,” he said, adding it was unclear how long they would remain in Afghanistan.
The flow of undocumented returnees increased steadily in January, rising from around 350 in the first week to around 1,400 in the final week of the month.
“It is very difficult to predict at the moment,” Danzinger said of the upward trend. “We have not seen it slow down, let’s put it that way.”
The unexpected arrival of thousands has put pressure on Afghanistan’s limited resources and only the most vulnerable are being given assistance.
About 10 percent of those arriving so far have access to assistance and the IOM had been forced to pull some of its resources away from the western border with Iran to cope, Danzinger said.
The IOM says it needs another $1.6 million in funds for 2015 to cope.