Refugees in South Asia
Refugees in South Asia
While refugees in South Asian countries nowhere constitute a cohesive social group (with the possible exception of some groups from Afghanistan in western Pakistan), they are so numerous at the present time (1991) that an outline of their demography is appropriate in this volume. Three South Asian countries hold a total of about 4,085,800 refugees today, of whom only 293,000 are native to the region. Most do not live in formal refugee camps, but many do benefit, if only a little, from funds that have been funneled to them from Western nations and food provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The countries of origin of refugees, estimates of their Current numbers in each host country, and the main reason for their flight to that country are listed in the following table.
| Host Country | Origin | Number | Reason for Flight |
| India | Sri Lanka | 228,000 | civil war between Sinhalese and secessionist Tamils |
| India | Tibet (China) | 100,000 | repression of Tibetan culture and religion by occupying Chinese forces |
| India | Bangladesh | 65,000 | mainly Biharis |
| India | Afghanistan | 11,100 | anticommunist freedom fighters (Mujaheddin) |
| India | Myanmar (Burma) | 800 | opponents of the military dictatorship |
| India | elsewhere | 900 | |
| Nepal | Tibet (China) | 14,000 | repression of Tibetan culture and religion by occupying Chinese forces |
| Pakistan | Afghanistan | 3,666,000 | anticommunist freedom fighters (Mujaheddin) |
| Pakistan | Iran | 1,100 | opponents of the fundamentalist Islamic government |
| Pakistan | Iraq | 1,700 | opponents of the Ba'ath government |
To put these figures into perspective, we might add that although South Asia contains 23 percent of the world's population, it currently holds less than 10 percent of the world's refugees. Africa remains the region of biggest refugee movements across national boundaries at this time.
See also Tamil of Sri Lanka
Bibliography
Smyser, W. R. (1991). "New Priorities in Refugee Care." The World and I 6:142-149.
PAUL HOCKINGS