The future of an estimated 1.7 million Afghans in Pakistan is uncertain due to the government’s systematic crackdown.
Pakistan has ordered all illegal immigrants, mainly about 1.73 million Afghans, to leave the country voluntarily or face deportation.
“We have given them a deadline of November 1,” Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Tuesday, as Islamabad claims that 14 of the 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghans. Stated.
Bugti said an estimated 1.73 million Afghans living in Pakistan do not have legal documents to stay, adding that a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees live in Pakistan.
“There is no two minds that we are being attacked from within Afghanistan and that Afghan nationals are involved in the attacks against us,” he said. “There’s evidence.”
Islamabad is experiencing the largest influx of Afghan refugees since the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979. About 1.3 million Afghans are registered refugees in Pakistan, with a further 880,000 holding legal status, according to the latest United Nations figures.
“If they don’t go, all law enforcement agencies, state or federal, will be used to deport them,” Bugti said.
It is not immediately clear how Pakistani authorities will be able to ensure that illegal immigrants leave the country, or how they will be able to find and expel them.
Pakistan’s announcement, which the Afghan embassy in Islamabad called “harassment”, marked a new low in relations with Kabul, which have deteriorated since border clashes between the South Asian neighbors last month.
In a statement on X, the embassy said more than 1,000 Afghans had been detained in the past two weeks, half of them despite having a legal right to stay in Pakistan.
“Despite repeated promises from Pakistani authorities, arrests and harassment of Afghan refugees by Pakistani police continues,” the newspaper said.
Fazal Rehman, a 57-year-old Afghan fruit vendor in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said his children had never been to Afghanistan, although he arrived in Pakistan 30 years ago. Ta.
He said he had never felt the need to register with Pakistani authorities, but was now concerned that it was too late to do so.
“We urge the Pakistani government not to expel us in haste and either allow us to live here peacefully or give us at least six months to a year to return home.” .
They must leave Pakistan by November 1, 2023 or face the consequences.Interim Minister of the Interior @PakSarfrazbugti announced a major crackdown on illegal immigrants, especially Afghans living in Pakistan without passports and visas. Panic immediately erupted in the money market and…
— Hamid Mir حامد میر (@HamidMirPAK) October 3, 2023
Bugti said Pakistan will only allow Afghans with valid passports and visas to enter the country from November 1.
For many years, Afghans entering Pakistan through the land border were allowed to use national identity cards as their travel documents.
Afghanistan has a huge waiting list of citizens seeking passports, and obtaining a Pakistani visa can take months.
Bugti also warned of a crackdown on properties and businesses owned by Afghans in Pakistan.
