PEshawar, Pakistan – Pakistan plans to expel 3 million Afghans in the country this year, while the deadline voluntarily leaves the capital and the surrounding surroundings on Monday.
This is the last phase of a national repression launched in October 2023 to illegally expel foreigners living in Pakistan, mainly Afghans. The campaign has shot the rights of rights, from the Taliban government and the UN
The arrests and deportations were to start on April 1, but were postponed on April 10 due to the vacation of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of Ramadan, according to government documents seen by the Associated Press.
About 845,000 Afghans have left Pakistan in the past 18 months, the figures from the International Organization for Migration show.
Pakistan says that 3 million Afghans remain. Among these, 1,344,584 have recording cards, while 807,402 have Afghan citizen cards. There are another million Afghans who are illegally in the country because they have no paperwork.
Pakistan said it will make sure that the Afghans will not come back once expelled.
The authorities wanted the holders of cards from Afghan citizens to leave the capital Islamabad and the city of Rawalpindi by March 31 and voluntarily return to Afghanistan or be expelled.
Those who have proof of recording can stay in Pakistan until June 30, while Afghans for the resettlement of the third country must also leave Islamabad and Rawalpindi by March 31.
Authorities said they would work with foreign diplomatic missions to reinstall Afghans, failing that they will also be expelled from Pakistan.
Tens of thousands of Afghans fled after taking control of the Taliban in 2021. They were approved for resettlement in the United States thanks to a program that helps people at risk due to their work with the US government, the media, assistance agencies and rights defense groups.
However, President Donald Trump interrupted American refugee programs in January and 20,000 Afghans are now in limbo.
The Taliban want Afghan refugees to come back with dignity
“No Afghan official will be part of any official decision -making committee or processes,” said one of the documents about expulsion plans.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Refugees of Afghanistan, Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, told the Associated Press that Pakistan made arbitrarily decisions, without involving the United Nations Refugees Agency or the Taliban government.
“We have shared our problems with them, declaring that the expulsion of refugees unilaterally is neither in their interest nor ours,” said Haqqani. “It is not in their interest because to expel them in this way raises hatred against Pakistan.
“For us, it is natural that the management of so many Afghans returns is a challenge. We asked that they be expelled by a mechanism and a mutual understanding so that they can come back with dignity. ”
Two public transport stations will be installed in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to help deportations. One will be in Nasir Bagh, an area in the suburbs of Peshawar. The second will be in the border town of Landi Kotal, about 7 kilometers from the Torkham crossing.
Afghans are not sure of their future in a country they do not know
It is not clear what will happen to children born in Pakistan to Afghan parents, Afghan couples with different types of documents and families where a parent is a Pakistani citizen and the other is Afghan. But officials told AP that social protection staff would be on site to help such cases.
Omaid Khan, 30, has an Afghan citizen card while his wife has proof of registration. Depending on the policy of the Pakistani government, he must leave, but his wife can stay until June 30. Their two children have no documents, including passports or identity cards from one or the other country.
“I come from the province of Paktia but I have never been there and I am not sure of my future,” he said.
Nazir Ahmed was born in the Southwest Pakistani city of Quetta and never went to Afghanistan. His only link with the country was through his father, who died in Quetta four years ago.
“How can we go there?” Said Ahmed, who is 21 years old. “Few people know us. All our loved ones live in Quetta. What will we do if we go there? We call on the Pakistani government to give us time so that we can go and discover, at least find a little job.”
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The writer Associated Press, Abdul Sattar, contributed to this Quetta report, in Pakistan.
