The Afghan refugee camp is a short distance from Habib Ullah Khan’s house in Haripur, where we had come to meet Lal Khan. Habib Ullah is a relative of our group member, and he recommended us to visit the camp in the area to get an insight into the lives of the Afghan refugees. Lal is an Afghan refugee who used to work on Habib’s farms and headed the construction of his house. Now, Lal is like family. He is such a trusted member that the women of the family do not do pardah in front of him.

Khalabut Town Ship in Haripur is a small, neat town inhabited mostly by owners of the farms around the area. A road leads us to a dusty clearing; small mud houses appear and the Afghan children stop their game to peer at our car with curiosity. Lal and his family used to live in a mud house at this camp, until his odd jobs helped him raise enough money to buy a place in Khalabut Town Ship. He managed to help 3 of his 4 brothers out of the camps; one of them still lives here with his family.

Some of the mud houses are flattened, indicating that the family has left the area. Lal directs our car through narrow spaces between the houses and we reach his brother’s house. Inside, we are warmly greeted by his brother’s wife and children. A tiny bulb lights up the small house and we sit on charpayis for a chat. Lal tells us he was 17 when he fled Laghman in Afghanistan during the Soviet Invasion. “We left behind our land and our loved ones. We had no idea where we were going. I had to take care of my siblings. I remember the day like yesterday, even though it was almost forty years ago. I was so scared,” Lal says. “Then when we arrived here, UNHCR would give us ration. Selling off that ration was how we started business. Then we did whatever we could do establish a life here.”

Khalabut Town Ship is tucked in a corner in Haripur, a place where influential people like landowners make the rules and not the government policy. This is why for Lal, maintaining relations with the town’s influential people like Habib Ullah Khan was extremely helpful. He became a go-to man for the whole town, doing construction, plumbing and farming work. He had to take care of his siblings as well; a responsibility he was carrying since all his life. He was the kind of man who hardly rested. He even got training from the Pakistani army to fight the Russians so he is also a trained militant. Forty years is a long time to make a life for yourself; and Lal has firmly rooted himself in the area. No policy can send him back.

The policy that does affect Lal and his family are border controls. It’s going to become harder and harder to cross the border now. This is going to be difficult for families like Lal’s who are accustomed to traveling back and forth between the two countries. “Two of my daughters are married in Afghanistan and my heart worries I won’t get to see them again,” Sajdah Bibi, Lal’s brother’s wife, says. Lal’s children have also left Pakistan; two of them made their way illegally across continents and are now in Germany. “I guess this is the life Allah has written for Afghanis. He does not like us staying in one place. We are destined for hardship and movement,” Lal says.

At the time of writing, it has been decided by the Pakistani government that undocumented Afghanis will also be registered. The process could take up to two years, and the deadline for their stay is till 31st December, 2017. These policies and updates seem meaningless in this small town, where the Afghans have made themselves indispensable members of the community. Yet, they still have not managed to end the cycle of hardship and movement. Groups of Afghans are either moving back to Afghanistan following the uncertain deadlines or are choosing to crossing borders to enter Europe. They are still financially weak. It is through sheer resilience that they manage to build their lives from scratch wherever they go. “What can we do? Sometimes, I question Allah and cry out to him but I know He is near and He is only testing us. We will successfully pass this test, I am sure,” Lal says, with a glimmer of hope in his piercing aqua blue eyes.