State law of refugees

Under international law, refugees are individuals who are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence; who have well-founded fear of discrimination because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion and are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country, or to return there for fear of persecution (Art 6 of the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1959). For example, Pakistan confronted this problem during the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947, which resulted in the largest cross-border movement in history. Pakistan, being a newly born country at that time, had no legislative structure in place, and therefore, had to confront a lot of difficulties in making sustainable laws for this area. The second instance of large-scale refugee movements is dated back to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 till 1992; more than six million Afghan refugees had to flee to the neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran. During the peak of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, nearly seven million Afghan refugees sought refuge within Pakistan, making Pakistan the only country to have hosted such a huge number of refugees in the annals of the history.