Peshawar: The repatriation of undocumented Afghan nationals to their homeland from different parts of Pakistan continues at Pak Afghan border Torkham as seventeen days are left to leave the country.
According to details, a total of thirty families have repatriated in fifteen trucks via Torkham border during the last twenty-four hours.
Meanwhile, the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees has made appropriate arrangements at Torkham border to facilitate the repatriation of undocumented Afghan nationals.
Amidst a crackdown against undocumented Afghans residing in the country, Pakistan’s authorities have ordered all undocumented Afghans to leave by 1 November or face deportation. In recent weeks, hundreds of refugees have been arrested and detained on the grounds that they do not have adequate paperwork. According to reports, at least four refugees have died in detention.
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, thousands of Afghans have fled into surrounding countries. More than 600,000 are estimated to have entered Pakistan, bringing the country’s total population of Afghan refugees (both registered and unregistered) to 3.7 million. 1.4 million are unregistered.
But in recent months, amidst worsening relations between the neighbouring countries, Pakistani authorities have stepped up a year-long crackdown against undocumented Afghans. On 2 October, Pakistan’s Interior Minister stated that all undocumented Afghans must leave the country by 1 November. Those who fail to do so, he said, will face deportation. “If they do not go…then all the law enforcement agencies in the provinces or federal government will be utilised to deport them,” he said. The Pakistani government has recently blamed Afghan nationals for a spate of violence in the country, alleging that Afghan nationals were responsible for 14 of the 24 suicide bombings witnessed in the country this year.
The announcement immediately drew criticism from national and international observers, and on 4 October Amnesty stated: “Amnesty International urges the Government of Pakistan to continue its historic support for Afghan refugees by enabling them to live with dignity and free from the fear of deportation to Afghanistan where they face persecution by the Taliban.”
