Immigration to Pakistan
Encyclopedia
Immigration to Pakistan refers to the movement of non-residents to Pakistan
, often in search of asylum. Immigration policy is overseen by the Interior Minister of Pakistan through the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports.
Many, but not all, become citizens. Most immigrants are not eligible for citizenship or even permanent residency, unless they are married to a Pakistani citizen or a Commonwealth
citizen who have invested minimum PKR
5 million in the local economy.
Based on the United Nations
report World Population Policies 2005, the total immigrant population in Pakistan was estimated to be 3,254,000 represented 2.1% of national population ranked 13th in the world.
According to United Nations report International Migration Profiles 2002, the immigrants population in the country was 1,098,110 in 1990 and then, 1,412,560 in 2000.
make up a growing proportion of immigrants in Pakistan. The five largest immigrant groups in Pakistan are in turn Afghans
, Bangladesh
i, Tajiks
, Uzbeks
, Iranians
, Biharis
, Burmese and Britons
including a sizeable number of those of Pakistani origin. Other significant expatriate communities in the country are Armenia
ns, Australians, Turks
, Chinese
, Americans
, Filipinos
, Bosnians
and many others. Migrants from different countries of Arab world
specially Egypt
, Iraq
, Palestine
, Syria
, Kuwait
, Libya
, Saudi Arabia
, and Yemen
are in thousands.
camp was one of the largest refugee camps in NWFP
, Pakistan, on the outskirt of Peshawar
. In late 1988, a total of approximately 3.3 million Afghan refugees were housed in Pakistan. After September 11, 2001, when the United States armed forces
and British Armed Forces
entered Afghanistan to engage in war with the Taliban during Operation Enduring Freedom, a number of Afghans fled their country to Pakistan. By the end of 2001, there were approximately 5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, which also included the numbers that were born inside the country during the past 20 years.
Since March 2002, approximately 3.5-5 million Afghan refugees have repatriated through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
from Pakistan back to Afghanistan, while more than a million others have returned by their own means. In 2007 and 2008, an estimated 2.7-3.5 million Afghan refugees were repatriated and some 50,000 were repatriated in 2009.
As of 2009, approximately 1.78 million registered Afghan refugees still remain in Pakistan as well as 3,000 asylum seekers, though there are more than three million unregistered refugees in Pakistan. In addition, an unknown but substantial number of Somali
, Iraq
i and Iranian immigrants were known to live in urban areas of Pakistan.
According to Pakistan's Ministry of States and Frontier Region
, more than 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees will remain in the country until December 2012 though around 300,000 Afghan refugees will return to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. UNHCR estimates show that around 1.5 million refugees will remain in the country in December 2011.
alone in 2004 out of 3.35 million illegal immigrants in Pakistan. The National Alien Registration Authority started registering illegal immigrants in the country in January 2002. Following the September 11 attacks, the Government of Pakistan ordered all the provincial governments to take serious action against illegal immigrants who entered the country after 2001, but decided to offer registration only to those immigrants who entered the country before December 2001. As of January 2010, the number of illegal immigrants in Karachi
is estimated to be between 1.6 and 2 million people. Thousands of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India
, Burma, Sri Lanka
, Iran
, Iraq
, Nigeria
, Somalia
, Jordan
, Uzbekistan
, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
, Kyrgyzistan, Azerbaijan
and from several other countries of Africa
and the Middle East
entered the country and are illegally living in Karachi, including thousands of Muslim students from Thailand
, Philippines
, Malaysia and Indonesia
illegally studying in the Pakistani madrasah
while thousands of women from Bangladesh and Burma are working as maids and prostitutes there; most of them are illegal immigrants.
According to some sources, thousands of radicals of Arab
origin who entered the country illegally to fight in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion
in 1979, and later against the US-led invasion in October 2001, still remain in the country.
Although the presence of illegal immigrants in Pakistan is against the law, the Government of Pakistan
did not make a serious effort to deport them until January 2010 when Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik
asked illegal immigrants living in the country to either leave or register themselves with the department concerned, as a major crackdown would soon initiated against them. This action was taken following the recent bomb attack
and targeted killing
s of political activists in the city, as cation against foreign militants operating in Pakistan.
According to the National Alien Registration Authority, there are immigrants from over 76 countries, mostly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, India and Burma illegally living and working in the country as cheap laborers involved in construction businesses and others which require unskilled manpower, whilst most of the illegal immigrants are those who intend to use Pakistan as a transit state in order to move to either the United States
or European countries
.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, often in search of asylum. Immigration policy is overseen by the Interior Minister of Pakistan through the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports.
Many, but not all, become citizens. Most immigrants are not eligible for citizenship or even permanent residency, unless they are married to a Pakistani citizen or a Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
citizen who have invested minimum PKR
Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...
5 million in the local economy.
Based on the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
report World Population Policies 2005, the total immigrant population in Pakistan was estimated to be 3,254,000 represented 2.1% of national population ranked 13th in the world.
According to United Nations report International Migration Profiles 2002, the immigrants population in the country was 1,098,110 in 1990 and then, 1,412,560 in 2000.
Demographics
As of 2005, 2.1% of the population had foreign origins, however the number of immigrants population in Pakistan recently grew sharply. Immigrants from South AsiaSouth Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
make up a growing proportion of immigrants in Pakistan. The five largest immigrant groups in Pakistan are in turn Afghans
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i, Tajiks
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
, Uzbeks
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
, Iranians
Iranians
Iranians may refer to:* Persian people, who are synonymous with the people of Iran/Persia...
, Biharis
Bihari people
The Biharis are an ethnic group originating from the present state of Bihar with a history going back three millennia...
, Burmese and Britons
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
including a sizeable number of those of Pakistani origin. Other significant expatriate communities in the country are Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
ns, Australians, Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
, Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
, Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Filipinos
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Bosnians
Bosnians
Bosnians are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and...
and many others. Migrants from different countries of Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
specially Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, and Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
are in thousands.
Refugees and asylum seekers
For more than three decades Pakistan hosted the largest single refugee population in the world. Meanwhile for the past three decades, Pakistan has shown very strong commitment to the protection of Afghan refugees, who have been caught in one of the world's most protracted refugee situations. The now-closed JalozaiJalozai
Jalozai refugee camp, 35 kilometres southeast of Peshawar, Pakistan, was one of the largest of 150 refugee or transit camps in Pakistan, holding Afghan refugees from the 1980s Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It had an estimated 70,000 refugees at its peak. New Jalozai adjoined the original Jalozai...
camp was one of the largest refugee camps in NWFP
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
, Pakistan, on the outskirt of Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
. In late 1988, a total of approximately 3.3 million Afghan refugees were housed in Pakistan. After September 11, 2001, when the United States armed forces
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
and British Armed Forces
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
entered Afghanistan to engage in war with the Taliban during Operation Enduring Freedom, a number of Afghans fled their country to Pakistan. By the end of 2001, there were approximately 5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, which also included the numbers that were born inside the country during the past 20 years.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...
from Pakistan back to Afghanistan, while more than a million others have returned by their own means. In 2007 and 2008, an estimated 2.7-3.5 million Afghan refugees were repatriated and some 50,000 were repatriated in 2009.
As of 2009, approximately 1.78 million registered Afghan refugees still remain in Pakistan as well as 3,000 asylum seekers, though there are more than three million unregistered refugees in Pakistan. In addition, an unknown but substantial number of Somali
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i and Iranian immigrants were known to live in urban areas of Pakistan.
According to Pakistan's Ministry of States and Frontier Region
Ministry of States and Frontier Regions
The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions is a federal government agency in Pakistan. The ministry is headed by the States and Frontier Regions Minister. Najmuddin Khan is the current Minister for States and Frontier Regions of Pakistan....
, more than 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees will remain in the country until December 2012 though around 300,000 Afghan refugees will return to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. UNHCR estimates show that around 1.5 million refugees will remain in the country in December 2011.
| TYPE OF POPULATION | TOTAL IN PAKISTAN WHOM ASSISTED BY UNHCR - JANUARY 2010 | TOTAL IN PAKISTAN WHOM ASSISTED BY UNHCR - DECEMBER 2010 - JANUARY 2011 | TOTAL IN PAKISTAN WHOM ASSISTED BY UNHCR - DECEMBER 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refugees | 749,180 | 700,720 | 652,240 |
| People in refugee-like situations | 972,200 | 870,800 | 769,300 |
| Asylum-seekers | 2,930 | 2,930 | 2,930 |
| Total | 1,724,310 | 1,574,450 | 1,424,470 |
Illegal immigration
There is no credible information available on illegal immigration in Pakistan; however according to the National Alien Registration Authority, there were an estimated 1.8 million illegal immigrants in Pakistan's commercial capital KarachiKarachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
alone in 2004 out of 3.35 million illegal immigrants in Pakistan. The National Alien Registration Authority started registering illegal immigrants in the country in January 2002. Following the September 11 attacks, the Government of Pakistan ordered all the provincial governments to take serious action against illegal immigrants who entered the country after 2001, but decided to offer registration only to those immigrants who entered the country before December 2001. As of January 2010, the number of illegal immigrants in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
is estimated to be between 1.6 and 2 million people. Thousands of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Burma, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
, Kyrgyzistan, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
and from several other countries of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
entered the country and are illegally living in Karachi, including thousands of Muslim students from Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Malaysia and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
illegally studying in the Pakistani madrasah
Madrasah
Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
while thousands of women from Bangladesh and Burma are working as maids and prostitutes there; most of them are illegal immigrants.
According to some sources, thousands of radicals of Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
origin who entered the country illegally to fight in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
in 1979, and later against the US-led invasion in October 2001, still remain in the country.
Although the presence of illegal immigrants in Pakistan is against the law, the Government of Pakistan
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...
did not make a serious effort to deport them until January 2010 when Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Rehman Malik
27 April 2009 He has been the interior adviser since 27 March 2008.Senator A. Rehman Malik is a Pakistani politician, member of the Senate of Pakistan, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani administration. His Second name is Shetan Malik and he...
asked illegal immigrants living in the country to either leave or register themselves with the department concerned, as a major crackdown would soon initiated against them. This action was taken following the recent bomb attack
2009 Karachi bombing
2009 Karachi bombing or Ashura attack took place on 28 December 2009 inside a Shi'ite procession commemorating the day of Ashura, at Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road, Karachi. Ashura is the holiest of days for followers of Shia Islam and marks the anniversary of the death of Hussain, grandson of Prophet...
and targeted killing
Targeted killing
Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...
s of political activists in the city, as cation against foreign militants operating in Pakistan.
According to the National Alien Registration Authority, there are immigrants from over 76 countries, mostly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, India and Burma illegally living and working in the country as cheap laborers involved in construction businesses and others which require unskilled manpower, whilst most of the illegal immigrants are those who intend to use Pakistan as a transit state in order to move to either the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
or European countries
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.