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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan launched a nationwide crackdown on Afghan nationals on Wednesday, a day after a deadline for illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave the country expired.
Thousands of Afghans have returned to their country in the past month while hundreds of families have been stranded at Torkham and Chaman border crossings, in Pakistan’s northwest and southwest, waiting for their turn to enter Afghanistan.Many of them, who are born or have lived in Pakistan for decades, are clueless about their future, saying they have nothing to go back to. Others are terrified to be heading back to Taliban-rule in their country.
Of the more than four million Afghans living in Pakistan, the government estimates that 1.7 million are undocumented.
The Pakistani government, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), is using threats, abuse, and detention to coerce Afghan asylum seekers without legal status to return to Afghanistan or face deportation. Many Afghans at risk of being deported are awaiting resettlement to the US, UK, Germany, and Canada.
“Pakistan’s announced deadline for Afghans to return has led to detentions, beatings, and extortion, leaving thousands of Afghans in fear over their future,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at HRW. “The situation in Afghanistan remains dangerous for many who fled, and deportation will expose them to significant security risks, including threats to their lives and well-being,” Abbasi said.
Pakistan had announced last month that all illegal foreign nationals and migrants living without legal status in Pakistan had 28 days to leave voluntarily or face deportation. The decision had prompted criticism from Afghanistan, rights groups and several other quarters, but the Pakistani authorities refused to budge from the deadline. Broad calls by Pakistani officials for mass deportation have instigated increased police abuse against Afghans, including harassment, assault, and arbitrary detention.
In the capital, Islamabad, police have already begun demolishing hundreds of illegally built mud homes where Afghans had been living in poverty. In the port city of Karachi, Afghans who have lived for generations in refugee camps have reported weeks of arbitrary arrests and extortion.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Taliban government urged Pakistan to give undocumented Afghans in the country more time to leave as pressure mounts at border posts swarmed by thousands of returnees fleeing the threat of deportation.
More than 200,000 Afghan nationals have returned to their homeland, Pakistani officials said, adding that about 104,000 Afghan nationals had left through the main Torkham border crossing in the northwest during the last two weeks. Pakistan’s interior ministry claimed that 140,322 have left through he Chaman border crossing in Balochistan province. “A process to arrest the foreigners … for deportation has started by November 1,” it said in a statement.
According to media reports, authorities on the Afghan side of the border have been overwhelmed by the scale of the exodus as they attempt to process those returning — some of whom are stepping foot in Afghanistan for the first time in their lives.
Pakistan, however, said the deportations are aimed at protecting the country’s “welfare and security” after a sharp rise in terrorist attacks, which the government blames on militants operating from Afghanistan.
Thousands of Afghans have returned to their country in the past month while hundreds of families have been stranded at Torkham and Chaman border crossings, in Pakistan’s northwest and southwest, waiting for their turn to enter Afghanistan.Many of them, who are born or have lived in Pakistan for decades, are clueless about their future, saying they have nothing to go back to. Others are terrified to be heading back to Taliban-rule in their country.
Of the more than four million Afghans living in Pakistan, the government estimates that 1.7 million are undocumented.
The Pakistani government, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), is using threats, abuse, and detention to coerce Afghan asylum seekers without legal status to return to Afghanistan or face deportation. Many Afghans at risk of being deported are awaiting resettlement to the US, UK, Germany, and Canada.
“Pakistan’s announced deadline for Afghans to return has led to detentions, beatings, and extortion, leaving thousands of Afghans in fear over their future,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at HRW. “The situation in Afghanistan remains dangerous for many who fled, and deportation will expose them to significant security risks, including threats to their lives and well-being,” Abbasi said.
Pakistan had announced last month that all illegal foreign nationals and migrants living without legal status in Pakistan had 28 days to leave voluntarily or face deportation. The decision had prompted criticism from Afghanistan, rights groups and several other quarters, but the Pakistani authorities refused to budge from the deadline. Broad calls by Pakistani officials for mass deportation have instigated increased police abuse against Afghans, including harassment, assault, and arbitrary detention.
In the capital, Islamabad, police have already begun demolishing hundreds of illegally built mud homes where Afghans had been living in poverty. In the port city of Karachi, Afghans who have lived for generations in refugee camps have reported weeks of arbitrary arrests and extortion.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Taliban government urged Pakistan to give undocumented Afghans in the country more time to leave as pressure mounts at border posts swarmed by thousands of returnees fleeing the threat of deportation.
More than 200,000 Afghan nationals have returned to their homeland, Pakistani officials said, adding that about 104,000 Afghan nationals had left through the main Torkham border crossing in the northwest during the last two weeks. Pakistan’s interior ministry claimed that 140,322 have left through he Chaman border crossing in Balochistan province. “A process to arrest the foreigners … for deportation has started by November 1,” it said in a statement.
According to media reports, authorities on the Afghan side of the border have been overwhelmed by the scale of the exodus as they attempt to process those returning — some of whom are stepping foot in Afghanistan for the first time in their lives.
Pakistan, however, said the deportations are aimed at protecting the country’s “welfare and security” after a sharp rise in terrorist attacks, which the government blames on militants operating from Afghanistan.
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