Afghan asylum seekers are encouraged to go back by creating a ‘rosy picture’ of Afghanistan

Despite various statements claiming that progress is being made in Afghanistan, thousands of people from Afghanistan are trying to flee to the safety of other countries, including Canada. But it seems that Afghans trying to seek refugee status in Canada can do so more easily by making their way onto the Canadian soil rather than applying at visa offices overseas, according to Embassy’s figures.

Experts and immigration lawyers believe that the low approval rates of applications in Islamabad indicates a widespread problem of poor training and faulty decision making process that they say has been consistently infecting the Canadian visa offices overseas for years.

For a long time now, refugee advocates have been repeatedly asking the government to address the issues at the visa offices overseas, said the Executive Director of the Canadian Council for Refugees Janet Dench. Islamabad has a approval rate of only 34.5 percent which is significantly low as compared to the applications approved in 2005 and 2006 (59 percent). The approvals at the Refugee Board are also down from 82 percent in the year 2006.

Ms. Dench said that all this gives an impression that they actually make generalizations or general decisions regarding what they will say about the situation in the country of origin and they are also very much influenced by what the UNHCR might say. While Afghan is on the way towards recovery, the UN refugee agency or the UNHCR is aiming at encouraging the Afghans to return to Afghanistan. Abraham Abraham, the representative of UNHCR in Canada said that on an average, more than 1100 to 1200 people are returning to Afghanistan every day. He said that the voluntarily repatriation points out that there are various places in Afghanistan where people can go back. But Adeena Niaze, executive director of Afghan Women’s Organization in Toronto said that in spite of the improvements taking place across Afghanistan, there is nothing much that can be said regarding human rights and people are still at risk of persecution.

Approximately, five million Afghan refugees have returned since 2001 and still more than three million Afghans are outside the borders. Ms. Niazi said that they get lots of calls form overseas and their friends and families in Canada but they do not have the capacity and also the rate of acceptance is very low. She said that the rate has dropped down because of the reports coming from the government that make people feel that Afghanistan has become good. She said that it is essential that people return there as they are needed.