VICE World News on Instagram: "Hundreds of Afghans are being jailed in Pakistan’s coastal city Karachi, including dozens of women and children who came to the country seeking medical treatment or to get jobs.Since last October, Pakistani police have detained at least 1,500 Afghan nationals who were in the city without valid refugee or travel documents. The arrests brought criticism from around Afghanistan after images of locked up Afghan women and children went viral online. Prison officials say most Afghan children arrived in need of basic medicine and were treated for skin rashes, fever and diarrhoea. Prison authorities hired translators and arranged for extra doctors to assist them.VICE World News visited the juvenile jail and women’s jail, which had separate community sections created for Afghan women and children. Officials there said Afghan teenagers were among their brightest and most hard-working students at their school and that Afghan women, teenagers and children have access to their gym facilities, library, and art room. Millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country, creating one of the world’s largest refugee populations. Since then, Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghans, urging them to register themselves with the UN and local authorities to avoid deportation. Currently, there are more than 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan with Proof of Registration cards. Many of them were born in Pakistan. Of them, half are children, 22 percent are women, and 15 percent are people with disabilities. There are also another 840,000 documented Afghans with Afghan Citizen Cards and an estimated 800,000 undocumented Afghans, according to the UNHCR. As economic pressures, medical needs, and suppression increase, more Afghans make their way to Pakistan, many of whom risk deportation for not having travel documents. @2030mama reports." | Zootzle
