Undocumented afghans were given a deadline by Islamabad to depart by November
According to officials on Thursday, a huge exodus of over 165,000 Afghans left Pakistan as a result of the government’s orders to deport up to 1.7 million illegal migrants.
Islamabad gave undocumented immigrants living in Pakistan an ultimatum last month: leave by November 1 or risk being arrested and deported.
Most of them hurried to the border in the last few days as the deadline drew near and authorities set up dozens of holding facilities to house detained Afghans.
While they try to process people returning, some of whom are visiting Afghanistan for the first time in their lives, authorities on the Afghan side of the border are overburdened by the magnitude of the migration.
Asserting for more time, we are in daily communication with the Pakistani authorities,” the minister of refugees for the Taliban government, Khalil Haqqani, said AFP.
After congestion there created an “emergency situation” for thousands of stranded individuals, Taliban authorities put up the center a few kilometers from a border crossing, along with camps for families without anywhere to go, according to an official.
Authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province worked through the early hours of Thursday to remove a line of 28,000 people at the busiest border crossing in Torkham, which stretched for seven kilometers (four miles).
The provincial home department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that just over 129,000 people had fled the province, and border officials in Balochistan province told AFP that a total of 38,100 people had passed through Chaman.
Officials pledged to continue their immigration crackdown, detaining hundreds of Afghans, while urging undocumented families to continue their voluntary departures as pressure at the borders decreased.
On Thursday, police gathered up 425 Afghans in Quetta, the city nearest the Chaman border crossing, while over 100 people were apprehended in one operation in the megacity of Karachi.
“Though the police stormed our home this morning and informed us they would check our IDs, I still have the card. 30-year-old potter Hameed Khan, who was born in a Peshawar refugee camp, told AFP at a police station in Karachi, where he had moved, “We would rather leave than endure police raids at our homes.”
It is deemed extremely dishonorable in traditional Afghan society for a guy who is not a close relative to enter the house when ladies are there.
In accordance with cultural sensitivities, Pakistan declared that women and children under the age of 14 who are departing voluntarily will not be subjected to body searches or biometric scanning at the border following a meeting between the interior minister of the nation and the Afghan ambassador on Thursday in Islamabad.
While Afghans have alleged weeks of arbitrary arrests and extortion, lawyers and rights groups have accused the government of employing threats, abuse, and jail to force Afghan asylum applicants to leave.
Human rights attorney Moniza Kakar, who practices in Karachi, stated, “Everyone who is present on this soil has the right to a fair trial under the Pakistani constitution, but these refugees have been denied that right.”
The campaign goes on
Since the Taliban regime took control in August 2021 and imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law, millions of Afghans have fled into Pakistan in recent decades, including an estimated 600,000 since then.
Reportedly, the deportations are being carried out to safeguard Pakistan’s “welfare and security” following a notable spike in attacks, which the government attributes on extremists operating out of Afghanistan.
It’s probably a pressure approach to get the Taliban government to help with security-related matters, according to analysts.
While disputing that refugees are to blame for instability, the Taliban government has urged Pakistani authorities to allow Afghan residents to depart with dignity for an extended period of time.
However, observers note that Pakistanis are generally in favor of the expulsion of undocumented Afghans, citing the strain that a long-term refugee population places on the nation’s infrastructure.
According to Human Rights Watch, Afghans who fled the Taliban regime and are waiting to be resettled in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, or Canada face repatriation once their visas for Pakistan expire.
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