Afghan refugees in Pakistan hoped for a better life, but live in hiding and hiding their identity for fear of being deported or, worse still, lynched in the streets for their faith. A short film by Christian Solidarity Worldwide collects the testimonies of the Christian community. According to experts, the only solution is humanitarian agreements with third countries.
London () – Four times discriminated against: as Christians, as Hazaras, as Afghans and as refugees. They are the fugitives who, after the fall of the Kabul government and the reconquest of the Taliban, fled to Pakistan but, in order to survive, they continue to be forced to hide their identity and their religious confession. His story is told in “Leave no one behind” (Leaving No One Behind), a short documentary film made by the human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
The Hazara ethnic minority has always been persecuted by the Pashtun majority, divided between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Largely of the Shiite Islamic faith, part of the community is now scattered and divided among various Pakistani cities, in danger and weakened by uncertainty about its future. If they revealed that they were Christians as well as Hazara refugees, they would risk being lynched in the streets. A possibility that is not so unusual in Pakistan.
“Scared by the Taliban, we fled at night,” says a woman surrounded by four children. Their names and faces are obscured, but her anguish shines through in her words: “We were afraid they would recognize us as Hazaras. If they knew we were from an army family, they would have killed us on the spot.” Immediately after regaining power, the Taliban hunted down and massacred those who had collaborated with international military forces or were in the service of the former Afghan government. “I was afraid, that’s why my daughters and I wore the burqa, while my sons had their faces covered with cloth, lying on the floor of the car so as not to reveal our ethnicity,” the woman continues, recounting her flight from Afghanistan. “I had attended law school for a fortnight, but after the recapture by the Taliban, I had no choice but to drop out.”
“Only a few people knew that I was a Christian,” another man later recounted, also with his face blacked out. “But my Muslim friends were asking me to convert back to Islam. I told them that the matter did not concern them, but I was very afraid.” When the Taliban began to persecute him because they found out that he was a Christian, they only found his wife at home. They asked her: “Where is your husband?” In an attempt to get an answer from her, they tortured her, burning her arms with a hot iron, which left scars clearly visible even months later. “We left with just what we were wearing, but when we got to Quetta we ran into great difficulties,” the man continues, “because my uncles know that we are Christians, so they called before us and told them not to accept us as infidels.”
Professor and analyst Farooq Suleria explains that the Hazaras “are not welcome in Pakistan, they are not welcome anywhere, but above all, both the Taliban and Daesh attack the Hazaras in different ways. For example, there were credible rumors of that the Hazaras had been driven from their homes and that their land had been distributed to the Taliban who had been fighting in Afghanistan for the past 20 years.” Their persecution “is an ongoing crisis that has lasted for 40 years” and that the international community must treat as an “urgent humanitarian issue.”
In reality, their situation is not improving even in Pakistan, where refugees face severe economic problems and limited access to resources and opportunities, as well as daily discrimination. Researcher Sabal Gul Khattak adds that many Afghans “receive threatening calls from unknown numbers telling them they know where they are and that they will be tracked.”
“Nobody is willing to rent their house to them,” continues the expert. “And if they do, it’s at exorbitant prices, but as people who have been forced to flee, they don’t have the financial resources to survive in a hostile environment.”
A young Hazara Christian couple confirms that the main problem in Pakistan is economic: “Even though I studied in Pakistan and got the certificate from the National Medical Commission, I still can’t work because I don’t have a work visa. We survive on donations.” “News reached us that in several cities in Pakistan the police detained Afghans who were here illegally,” she added.
The Pakistani government granted a visa extension, but, as Sabal Gul Khattak points out, “this measure only applies until December for those who already have documents. Many have never obtained them. After December, nobody knows what will happen.” Locked up in their own homes, the refugees feel stressed and scared to the point that “every time someone rings the bell, we fear that it is the police who have come to expel us because we are undocumented,” they recounted in the video.
“I’m desperate,” the young man of the couple is moved. “I had come to Pakistan on a scholarship and hoped for a better future. My plan was to go back and serve my people, but after the latest events in Afghanistan we are stuck here. We can’t go back and we can’t even move on.”
As the only solution, Sabal Gul Khattak points out the need to sign “agreements with countries where Hazara Christians are safe”, because now “in Pakistan they are not safe, that’s for sure. The asylum laws are there, we must make use of them in all countries,” he concludes.
