By Anmol Irfan
As of mid-2024, 122.6 million people remain forcibly displaced – removed from their homes or even countries due to conflict, persecution, hunger and other driving factors. With immigration policies across the world changing, and a movement to tighten borders led by Trump and other far right leaders, many of these refugees now face an even more uncertain future than before.
As anti-refugee sentiment increases, so does the nature of those talking about it – journalists and media organisations. Recent research conducted by The Conversation shows how even the words “migrant” or “refugee” may invoke different, emotional reactions from people within different countries – all because of the narrative people are fed with regards to who refugees are and how they affect the world around them.
It’s not just the uncertainty of where they might end up, but where they are right now that’s also contributing to their problems. As of last year, Pakistan and Bangladesh were amongst the top ten countries hosting the highest number of refugees. With India and other surrounding countries also hosting significant numbers of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), South Asia plays a crucial role in the future of millions of refugees. Yet many of them have lived generations in refugee camps and remain undocumented or face uncertain futures due to the lack of clear policies or attempts at integration by the host countries. This experience is often made worse by prejudices and hate from those living around them, many of which are learned from the way regional media has been reporting on refugee issues.
Along with Afghan and Rohingya refugees, who are the largest refugee groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively, South Asia is also seeing a sharp increase in climate refugees and IDPs as the region is one of the most vulnerable areas in the world to climate disasters. Yet it seems like the media in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and India has never fully accepted these groups as part of their society. It has “othered” them for so long through language, stereotypical narratives and blame that for many South Asians no other reality exists.
In mid-May, while reporting on the issue of the Pakistani passport dropping to 103rd in global rankings, Pakistan Today immediately put the blame on “unauthorized use of counterfeit Pakistani passports by Afghans.”
That’s just one example of how Pakistani media blames Afghan refugees in Pakistan for crimes and for contributing to issues the country is facing. Despite the fact that the report also mentioned other contributing factors, the article only skims over those, putting the focus mainly on Afghan refugees
Allahmir Miakhel, manager and facilitator at the Afghan Refugees Model Community Centre in Kohat — a city in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, says that this blame game played by the media has a huge impact both on Afghans themselves and those around them.
“We are living in Pakistan peacefully, we are not a burden on Pakistan, so why is media calling us a burden,” he says, adding that he turned off a Pushto-language radio channel that would talk about how Afghan refugees were harming Pakistan as it was causing emotional distress for many of his community members.
Aside from impacting people’s wellbeing directly, media coverage that criminalises and even dehumanises refugees also shapes how people perceive them and their role in society. Writer Mehr Husain, who’s worked closely with Afghan craftswomen tells MDI that her own interaction with them made her see the gaps and flaws in the media.
“One of the things I feel is missing from the media is how these refugees have contributed to the economy. The story that I did was about how Afghan female refugee artisans were adding value to Pakistan’s heritage and generating income based on skills, embroideries and patterns which now are being lost or at risk of being lost,” Husain says.
She adds that something similar happened after the floods in Pakistan in 2022, where there was an overall concept that Sindhi people were dying but there were no details about who they were and why they were affected. This dehumanisation, whether it’s Afghan refugees or climate refugees, takes away from the humanity of refugees and reduces them to numbers.
Ambi, a migration and mobility researcher, a South Asian Futures Fellow at CSDR and FES India, tells MDI, “While outright dehumanisation may not always be explicit, the language used in climate-related displacement coverage often invisibilises the complexity of people’s experiences. Media reports tend to focus on statistics from sudden-onset disasters, like floods or cyclones, without exploring the structural or climate change-related root causes that drive displacement. The human face of climate mobility is frequently lost in translation.”
She also points out that the media makes the mistake of limiting the issue of climate refugees to one that is purely national, when it is in fact a regional issue. The gap in understanding this can also be seen in the issue of Rohingya refugees, who’s needs have long been neglected both in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
“Refugees should not be used as political pawns or scapegoats. The media’s role should be to inform the public truthfully and compassionately, hold governments accountable, and highlight the humanity and contributions of refugees—not just their suffering,” says Noor Azizah, Co-founder and Director of the Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network.
But Rohingya photographer Zia Hero says that’s exactly the approach most media takes. “They mostly cover the bad things happening in the [refugee] camp like smuggling, trafficking and not much about our needs or our hope and what can be better for the Rohingya,” Hero tells MDI.
That’s why Hero started Rohingyatographer Magazine, which features documentary photography from Rohingya photographers he has been training. “I’m developing the skills of youth in camp to tell our stories by ourselves, so we don’t always need media covering our issues,” he tells MDI.
There’s still such little actual representation from refugees themselves in mainstream South Asian media. Journalist Rabbia Arshad who has spent a few years reporting on Afghan refugee communities in various areas in Pakistan says it took her a whole year to find experts to speak to because there’s so little in depth reporting being done that actually features community leaders. “News only covers it if something big happens. A journalist in Peshawar says they’ve faced threats of arrest if they continue to cover the issue,” Arshad tells MDI.
But more and more, refugee advocates like Hero, Miakhel and Azizah are building up a solution themselves. “South Asian media must also reflect on its own colonial and nationalist biases. Refugee stories don’t exist in a vacuum; they’re shaped by histories of war, genocide, and displacement that implicate the region. If we want a just and inclusive future, media must challenge the structures that create displacement rather than criminalize those displaced by them,” Azizah says.
