Copyright © 2011. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. 122 Statelessness and citizenship Under the New Delhi and Tripartite Agreements, about 500 000 ‘stranded Pakistanis’ registered with the ICRC for repatriation to Pakistan, but only about 108 000 people were repatriated.29 The majority of the population was refused citizenship, and thousands of families still suffer from decades of separation. Despite Bangladesh’s calls for continuing repatriation processes, Pakistan resisted. In the years that followed, several thousand more Urdu-speakers reportedly moved to Pakistan illegally.30 Thousands remaining in Bangladesh continued to subsist in the government-managed camps (the ICRC departed in 1973)31 which evolved into squalid, overcrowded slum-like settlements where entire families live in rooms no larger than eight feet by ten feet. Most are denied access to social services, including public education and health care, and as a result of poverty and discrimination, find their livelihoods in the informal sector as barbers, mechanics or rickshaw drivers. Some, including children, engage in traditional weaving and the embroidery of saris, techniques known as Benarasi and Karchupi. Although these products are prized for their luxurious quality, the artisans are paid less than one tenth of the retail price.32 While most settlements have electricity, sanitary conditions are grave. The few toilets and washing facilities, combined with poor drainage and nearly non-existent garbage disposal, have resulted in high levels of dysentery, particularly among children, and the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera is high. During the 1970s, as living conditions deteriorated and as Pakistan faced political pressure to honour its agreements regarding repatriation, the Stranded Pakistanis General Repartriation Committee (SPGRC) was formed. It vigorously continued advocacy for repatriation. In 1985, Pakistan President Zia-ul Haq offered to accept the remaining Urduspeakers in Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds, offering international assistance. Millions of dollars were raised, and the Saudi charity, Rabita al-Alam al-Islami (World Muslim League) created the Rabita Trust for Repatriation of Stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh in 1988 to facilitate the repatriations. The World Muslim League and the Pakistan High Commission in Bangladesh reportedly carried out a population survey of the camps in Bangladesh.33 Some small progress was made in 1993, when under a Joint Declaration between Bangladesh and Pakistan, 50–60 families out of an anticipated 3000 were repatriated from the Adamjee camp in Narayanganj.34 By 1994, the Rabita Trust reportedly had constructed 1000 housing units (out of an anticipated 41 500 throughout Punjab) in the Mian Channu district.35 Repatriation was controversial within Pakistan, as non-Urdu-speakers in the Sindh region raised concerns that they would become a minority in their ancestral land and that the Urdu-speakers would join paramilitary groups.36 Statelessness Citizenship122 : A Comparative Study on the Benefits of Nationality, edited by Brad K. Blitz, and Maureen Lynch, M2482 - BLITZand PRINT.indd 21/12/2010 11:56 Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bham/detail.action?docID=655534. Created from bham on 2023-11-30 09:57:20.