Pakistan has announced that starting Wednesday, anyone caught staying in the country illegally will be detained and sent to deportation centers.
Millions of Afghans live in the country, many of whom came to Pakistan as early as 1979, when the USSR invaded Afghanistan. The number of refugees increased when the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
Pakistan says the 1.4 million Afghans who are registered refugees need not worry. The government denies it is targeting Afghans and says the focus is on people staying in the country illegally, regardless of their nationality.
In Torkham, on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, a senior official revealed that thousands of Afghan refugees are waiting their turn in cars and trucks, and the number continues to grow. The official said that more than 10,000 refugees had gathered at the border since morning.
More than 100,000 Afghans have left since the Pakistani government announced in early October that the 1.7 million Afghans it considers illegal immigrants have a month to leave Pakistan. More than 80% have left through the Torham border crossing, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where most Afghan migrants live.
Provincial police say they have not yet started arresting the migrants because they are leaving voluntarily, but Afghan refugees in Karachi and Islamabad have reported arrests and violence.
2023-10-31 08:28:35
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