Pakistan "clears" up Afghan slums

Islamabad's rich are facing hard times. The public officials of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, are cracking down on illegal slums.At least 14 settlements will be "cleared", - of course without compensation or rehousing plan for the dwellers. Most of them are working for approximately 100 €uro per month as maids, chauffeurs, gardeners and helpers in the households of Islamabad's rich elites.

The inhabitants of these slums are actually refugees from Afghanistan and often in Pakistan since the 1980th. Often they already the second and third generation who are living in the slums around Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Most of the people told me that they consider themselves as Pakistanis, not Afghans. But they never have had even the chance to apply for Pakistani citizenship.

The slums are housing tens of thousands of people who are unable to afford the city's high rents so their huts are made from clay bricks. Some are located on drainage paths, designed to channel away the rain water of the monsoon. Most of them have no access to electricity, gas or water supply.

Their huts will be "cleaned" up by riot police and army. There will and must be forced repatriations to Afghanistan to avoid future unrests. Still ti step will violate every international law for the protection of displaced people. Among the Pakistani population any willingness for support of these people is missing. Even my driver, a chauffeur for an international aid organization responded to my questions only "na, these are people who are not good people" and talked in Urdu about “katchi abadis” and colonies