The Pakistani government has approved the creation of several deportation centres for hundreds of thousands of illegal Afghan nationals it plans to arrest and send back to Afghanistan starting next month, VOA learned Tuesday.
The approval of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan comes ahead of a November 1 deadline set by the government for all “illegal/unregistered foreigners” and those who have “overstayed their visas” to return to their countries of origin or face deportation for violating Pakistan’s immigration laws.
Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, announcing the deadline in early October, said an estimated 1.7 million Afghans were among those facing forced deportation.
Official sources told VOA that special deportation centres would be set up in the country’s four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Afghans detained in Punjab and Sindh will be transferred to centres in the districts of Rawalpindi and Karachi respectively.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have two detention centres – in Nowshehra and Chamkani – while Balochistan will have three, in the provincial capital Quetta and in Pishin and Qilla Abdullah districts. These two provinces line Pakistan’s nearly 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) border with Afghanistan and together host the largest number of refugee families.
The new plan empowers district administration, police, prosecution and prison authorities to detain and deport illegally residing Afghan nationals. It stipulates that those convicted or on trial for minor offences will be deported, while those convicted or on trial for ‘serious crimes’ will not be sent back to Afghanistan.
Islamabad has pledged to carry out the deportations in a ‘phased and orderly manner’. It has also clarified that the crackdown will not target the 1.4 million Afghan refugees living legally in the country and some 900,000 others who hold valid Afghan citizenship cards and are formally registered in Pakistan as economic migrants.
The government has formally instructed law enforcement agencies not to harass legal refugees and those holding Afghan citizenship cards, although Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and refugee families have alleged that some have been subjected to police abuse, mistreatment and extortion.
The Taliban have called on Pakistan to review the deportation plan, denouncing it as ‘inhumane’ and ‘unacceptable’. However, they have recently set up special camps on the Afghan side of the border to provide immediate shelter, health care, food and financial assistance to families returning from the neighbouring country.
Officials in both countries have confirmed that tens of thousands of Afghans have voluntarily returned home since Islamabad announced the deadline nearly a month ago.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, speaking to an Afghan television channel on Tuesday, urged Pakistan to treat Afghan refugees “humanely” and extend the deportation deadline. He urged all refugees to return to their country, saying they had made war-torn Afghanistan a “safer and better” place.
The Taliban seized power from a US-backed government in August 2021, when the United States and NATO troops withdrew from the country after nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.
The Taliban takeover prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee to Pakistan, fearing retribution for their association with Western forces. They included human rights defenders, former government officials, professionals, women activists and journalists. Many have since been resettled in the US and other Western countries, while thousands are waiting for their resettlement applications to be processed in the US and Europe.
The Taliban imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, banning teenage girls from education and many women from working. The restrictions have discouraged many Afghan refugee families from returning to Afghanistan, where their daughters cannot seek an education or work.
The United Nations has also urged Islamabad to suspend its plan to expel Afghans seeking refuge, warning that it could expose them to persecution and other abuses by the country’s de facto Taliban authorities.
