User:Khgsu/sandbox

Article Critique
For the article Afghan refugees, I plan to add more information about the recent repatriation of the Afghan refugees from Pakistan. This is one of the biggest issues concerning Afghan refugees currently, yet there is only one sentence addressing it in the entire page. Furthermore, I plan to add a citation to many of the sentences which are missing citation so that readers can reference them if they need to read more about the history of Afghan refugees. I will also add a citation to the sentence about the reason for the surge in the repatriation of refugees to Afghanistan from Pakistan because there is not a citation for it now. There is some debate about this on the talk page as well concerning its neutrality. Furthermore, if there are any needs for updates or verification of the numbers, I will add recent sources. I am also thinking about adding sections for refugees in Pakistan, Iran, and other countries including information on the refugee policy of these countries as well as the challenges Afghan refugees face in these countries.

Article Edits
I have also completely restructured a paragraph relating to the recent repatriation of refugees. I added a citation to one of the sentences without a citation as well as restructured the sentence. I have added the name of the Taliban group as well as claims of them being based in Afghanistan (added two sources for this), which is why Afghan refugees have faced harassment since then (this was not stated before) along with sources. I have also update the number of deaths for the Peshawar attack here along with a source. And I have added the estimated number of refugees returning to Afghanistan form Pakistan along with a source. 2/10/2017 2:30 pm

I am now in the process of adding more article sections.

Based on looking at few other articles, I plan to add sections like the following.

Lead from original article
Afghan refugees are citizens of Afghanistan who left their country as a result of major wars. Ever since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, neighboring Pakistan, India and Iran began providing shelter to Afghan refugees. When the Soviet war ended in 1989, these refugees started to return to their homeland. In April 1992, a major civil war began after the mujahideen took over control of Kabul and the other major cities. Afghans again fled to neighboring countries.A total of 6 million Afghan refugees were housed in Pakistan and Iran, making Afghanistan the largest refugee-producing country in the world, a title held for 32 years. Afghans are currently the second largest refugee group after Syrian refugees. The majority of Afghan refugees (95%) are located in Iran and Pakistan. Some countries that were part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took in small number of Afghans that worked with their respective forces. Ethnic minorities, like Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, often fled to India.

Internally displaced Afghans
There are over one million internally displaced people in Afghanistan. In 2016 there were nearly 625,000 displaced persons. The Soviet invasion caused approximately 2 million Afghans to be internally displaced, mostly from rural areas into urban areas. During the Soviet invasion, approximately two million individuals were internally displaced. The Taliban rule  caused a new displacement wave, with many Afghans moving to northern cities in order to get away from the Taliban ruled areas. Although majority of the IDPs in Afghanistan are as a result of conflict, there are also reasons of natural disasters and access to essential services and employment. Afghanistan continues to suffer from insecurity and conflict, which has led to an increase in internal displacement.

Host countries
According to the UNHCR, there are approximately 2.6 million registered refugees in 70 countries around the world, with the majority (95 per cent) being hosted by two countries, the Islamic Republics of Iran and Pakistan. About three in four Afghans have gone through internal, external or multiple displacement in their lives.

Pakistan
Pakistan has been home to over a million refugees for 40 years. 1.5 million officially registered Afghan refugees were reported to be living in Pakistan in addition to approximately 1 million more unregistered refugees.

Recently however, due to security concerns as well as increasing political tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, there has been an influx of refugees returning to Afghanistan. Pakistan initially allowed Afghan refugees legal refugee status until December 31 of 2016, after which they would be required to leave or be deported, however in September the the deadline of their return was extended until March 31, 2017.

On December 16, 2014, there was a terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar by the Pakistani Taliban group Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), the leaders of which are claimed to be based in Afghanistan in areas outside of Kabul control according to senior Pakistani officials. The attack killed at least 145 people, most of them school children. Following the attack, the Pakistani government adopted the National Action Plan (NAP) to tackle terrorism and one of the 20 points of this action plan was to establish a comprehensive policy to register Afghan refugees. Since 2015, there have been reports of Afghan refugees in Pakistan encountering serious harassment, hostility, and pressure to return to Afghanistan. There has been an ongoing exodus of tens of thousands of refugees as of February 2015. According to the Human Rights Watch, in 2016 there were about 365,000 documented and 200,000 undocumented Afghan refugees repatriated from Pakistan. The mass exodus has been described as voluntary repatriation by the Pakistan government as well as UNHCR, however in a recent report the Human Rights Watch described it as unlawful coercion of Afghan refugees and voluntariness of return has been questioned.

Pakistan receives approximately $133 million in aid from the UNHCR for its refugee population. In June 2016, UNHCR doubled its cash grants for registered returning refugees from $200 to $400 per person, however this was suspended in December 2016 with UNHCR stating it ran out of money.

Iran
According to The World Factbook, in 2015 there were about 1 million registered and between 1.5 and 2.0 million undocumented refugees in Iran.

Afghans in Iran had freedom of movement to travel or work in any city until the early 2000s when the Iranian government started to issue residence cards. With the first set of residence cards in 2003, Afghan refugees were free to move or work within their city of residence, however to travel or work outside of the city of residence they need official travel permits (Laissez-Passer). There is an issuance fee for the authorized travel permit, and without them refugees can be subject to arrest, detention, and even deportation. Afghan refugees are limited to employment in certain specific areas. Furthermore in 2007, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran outlined certain cities or provinces as No-Go Areas (NGAs) for foreigners, including refugees on the basis of “national security”, “public interest” and “health.”   The NGA designated areas were off limits for Afghan refugees to live, travel, or work in. The Afghan refugees that had been living in the NGA areas since before 2007 had to relocate within a limited time. They faced challenges with the cost of moving and finding jobs in a new city.

I will be adding more references for this section later on

Farzin, Farshid, and Safinaz Jadali. 2013. "Freedom of movement of Afghan refugees in Iran." Forced Migration Review 1, no. 44: 85.

International aid
There has been a regional effort to facilitate voluntary repatriation, sustainable reintegration, and the provision of aid to host countries with the International Conference on the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees to Support Voluntary Repatriation, Sustainable Reintegration and Assistance to Host Countries (SSAR). In 2015, the high level segment of the UNHCR's 66th Executive Committee meeting concentrated on Afghan refugees. This was an effort to bring international attention and promote sustainable solutions for Afghan refugees.

Due to the ongoing conflict, insecurity, unemployment, and poverty in Afghanistan, the Afghan government has had difficulty coping with its internally displaced population in addition to the influx of returnees in a short period of time. In order to meet the needs of returning refugees, within its 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan, the UN has appealed the international community for $240 million in humanitarian assistance.

Although there are no detailed plans, in February of 2017, India announced plans to build homes in Afghanistan for returning Afghan refugees.

Third country resettlement
from original with my changes

Returning to Afghanistan since 2002
After the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001, over 5 million Afghans have been repatriated through the UNHCR from Pakistan and Iran to Afghanistan. On December 16, 2014, there was a terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar by the Pakistani Taliban group Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), the leaders of which Pakistan claim to be based on the Afghan side of the border. The attack killed at least 145 people, most of them Pakistani school children. Following the attack, there have been reports of Afghan refugees in Pakistan encountering serious harassment and often being told to return to Afghanistan.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans began returning to Afghanistan in recent years. According to the United Nations, by the end of 2016 about 600,000 documented and undocumented Afghans were repatriated from Pakistan. The remaining registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan numbers around 1.3 million. In the same year, UNHCR reported that 951,142 Afghans were living in Iran. Most of these were born and raised in Pakistan and Iran in the last three and a half decades but are still considered citizens of Afghanistan.

Peer Reviewed Sources
Alimia, Sanaa. "Violence and vulnerabilities: Afghans in Pakistan." Forced Migration Review no. 46 (May 2014): 24-25.

Crews, Robert D. 2015. Afghan Modern: the History of a Global Nation. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2015.

Khan, Muhammad Abbas. "Pakistan's national refugee policy." Forced Migration Review no. 46 (May 2014): 22.

Khan, Nichola. "The taste of freedom: commensality, liminality, and return amongst Afghan transnational migrants in the UK and Pakistan." Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute 20, no. 3 (September 2014): 466-485.

Kuschminder, Katie, Melissa Siegel, and Nassim Majidi. "The changing nature of return migration to Afghanistan." Forced Migration Review no. 46 (May 2014): 28-29.

Mazhar, Muhammad Saleem, and Naheed S. Goraya. "Pak-Afghan Relations Post 9/11: Prospects & Opportunities." South Asian Studies (1026-678X) 31, no. 2 (July 2016): 1-15.

Natta, Pierfrancesco Maria. "Anchoring return: the role of the Solutions Strategy." Forced Migration Review no. 46 (May 2014): 12-14.

O'Leary, Aidan. "2014 and beyond: implications for displacement." Forced Migration Review no. 46 (May 2014): 4-7.

Rodriguez, Enrique Baltar. "The Unfinished Story of the Afghan Refugees: The Long Walk to Voluntary Repatriation." Foro Internacional 54, no. 4 (October 2014): 1065-1073.

Sultana, Razia. "Major Threats to Pakistan in the Wake of US Withdrawal from Afghanistan: The Case of FATA and KP." FWU Journal Of Social Sciences 1, (June 2, 2015): 64-73.

Tyler, Dan. "Reframing solutions for Afghan refugees." Forced Migration Review no. 46 (May 2014): 18-21.

News Sources
"Relieve the Plight of Millions of Afghan Refugees." The New York Times, 2016.

Constable, Pamela. "After a lifetime in Pakistan, Afghans are told to go." The Washington Post, 2016.

Constable, Pamela. "Pakistan uses 1.5 million Afghan refugees as pawns in dispute with U.S." The Washington Post, 2016.

Cunningham, Erin. "A humanitarian crisis looms in Afghanistan as number of displaced climbs." The Washington Post, 2016.

Garland, Chad, and Zubair Babakarkhail. "Taunted and abused, Afghan refugees leave Pakistan." Stars and Stripes, 2016.

Jeong, May. "Afghans, the Refugees' Refugees." The New York Times, 2016.

Nordland, Rod. "Afghanistan Itself Is Now Taking In the Most Afghan Migrants." The New York Times, 2016.

https://www.nrc.no/news/2016/august/return-to-afghanistan/

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/02/21/pakistan-stop-forced-returns-afghans

https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/11/18/what-are-you-doing-here/police-abuses-against-afghans-pakistan

https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/mission_newsletter/file/IOM_Pakistan_Quarterly_Newsletter_Dec_2016.pdf

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55288#.WJZ3bDsrKM8

http://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20Afghanistan%20-%20Update%20on%20Return%20Trends%20-%2027OCT2016.pdf

http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/afghan-solutions-strategy.html

http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/latest/2016/6/576bd0a84/decades-pakistan-afghan-refugees-set-return.html

http://www.unocha.org/afghanistan