JEDDAH, 17 June — A symposium organized by the Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) here on Friday came up with a suggestion to pursue the UNHCR for granting refugee status to stranded Pakistanis languishing in squalid camps across Bangladesh.
Dr. Francis Lamand, the chief guest at the symposium, mooted the idea of sending a delegation comprising leaders of stranded Pakistanis and members of Rabita Trust to meet the UNHCR chief at Geneva and apprise him of the miseries the stranded people have been undergoing in camps for the past 30 years. Lamand, president of Paris-based Islam and the West, held out an assurance he would help organize a meeting between the team and the UNHCR chief. He said once the stranded people were granted refugee status, they would be entitled to subsistence allowance and could also be provided transportation cost once the repatriation process begins.
The Pakistanis who had backed the Pakistan Army during a war with India in East Pakistan were evicted from their houses and herded in camps soon after the fall of Dhaka. These unfortunate people have been languishing in 66 camps across Bangladesh since 1971 but have not been declared refugees.
Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef, who presided over the “Self-Finance Scheme for the Repatriation of Stranded Pakistanis” symposium appreciated the proposal of Dr. Lamand and said Pakistan government should be extended all help in the repatriation and rehabilitation of its citizens in the country.
He said the PRC proposal that envisaged generating fund for the repatriation and rehabilitation of the stranded people by affording them opportunities to find employment abroad should be given due consideration by Pakistan government.
Dr. Naseef, a former vice president of Shoura Council and a recipient of Hilal-e-Pakistan award, said he realized during a visit to Dhaka last week that the situation had become serious after several shanties in a stranded Pakistanis’ camp in Dhaka were razed by the local authorities. The inmates of those camps are scared and totally insecure, he said.
Naseef said he had been assured by IIRO (International Islamic Relief Organization) that it would set up schools, clinics, mosques and madarassas for stranded Pakistanis. Naseef said the Trust meeting tentatively scheduled for next month will review the situation and take into consideration all options for resolving the issue immediately.
