Refugee accounts

Despite the failure to push forward the proposal to grant citizenship to Afghan refugees, the PTI government has taken the positive step of allowing registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan to open bank accounts in the country. Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the move via Twitter a few days back and confirmed that he had issued clear instructions to authorities to allow registered Afghan refugees to participate in the formal economy. This is part of the steps that the government has taken to curb money laundering. One must agree with the PM when he admitted that this step should have been taken long ago.Afghan refugees have been living in Pakistan for almost four decades. The over two million refugees have been forced to remain part of the informal economy, which has been part of the reason why so much fear has been projected onto their cash flows. While it would have been better for PM Khan to push through the citizenship proposal, this too is a much-needed step that can reduce the trust deficit and begin to incorporate Afghan refugees into the country’s formal economy.This step should be the first of many that lead to a larger incorporation of refugees into Pakistani society. The fact is that the attempts to repatriate refugees to their home countries will not be 100 percent successful. Bangladeshi and Afghan refugees have been living in Pakistan for decades and developed settled lives here. It would only make sense for them to be allowed to partake in the formal economy and formal politics in the country. PM Khan had showed the right intention when he proposed to push through the process of citizenship for the children of refugees one month after taking office. More than Afghan refugees, it is clearer in the case of refugees from Bangladesh that the question of return is not on the cards at all.In such a situation, it is important to push through changes that open up our narrow ideas of citizenship. Why can Pakistan not give citizenship to people who have been forced to live most of their lives on Pakistani soil and have integrated into its culture and society? The PTI government has been constrained by parts of the opposition from taking the initiative, but it has done well to take an important step by allowing refugees to open bank accounts. This will be the first step towards integrating refugees in Pakistani society.

from The News International - Editorial https://ift.tt/2IH6Wlm