The Afghan authorities have expressed deep concern at the “harassment and mistreatment” of their citizens in Pakistan as Islamabad speeds up its crackdown on Afghan refugees and “illegal residents” living in Pakistan.
In a statement, the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said Afghan nationals in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have recently been subjected to arrests, searches and orders from the police to leave and relocate to other parts of Pakistan.
The statement came after Islamabad took the exraordinary step of sending uniformed police officers to mosques in the capital city to make announcements on loudspeakers, asking undocumented Afghans to voluntarily go home or face the law.
“This is to inform you all that all those people who do not have the required documentation to reside in Pakistan should voluntarily return to their countries of origin” said the statements read out on mosque loudspeakers. “Following the deadline issued by the government of Pakistan, legal action will be taken against those who do not do so.”
The Afghan embassy in Islamabad said in a statement on X: “This process of detaining Afghans, which began without any formal announcement, has not been officially communicated to the Embassy of Afghanistan in Islamabad through any formal correspondence.”
The embassy added that they had taken up the issue with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees but the UNHCR were also unaware of the fast developing situation on the ground.
“The embassy has held multiple meetings with relevant Pakistani authorities and officials to seek clarification on the matter – whether these actions are isolated incidents that need to be stopped or part of an official policy that should be publically disclosed,” said the statement.
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Expulsion of Afghans
Pakistani authorities last year announced that illegal Afghan refugees will no longer be permitted to live in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The Pakistani regime made this announcement after claiming that Afghan refugees had taken part in political protests led by Imran Khan’s party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in November last year.
As of October 2023, the UN estimates that there are over 3.7 million Afghans, including both registered refugees and illegals, residing in Pakistan. Many of the undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan were born in the country and have been living here for decades. They say that all they know is Pakistan and have no homes and no jobs to go back to in Afghanistan.
Most of these Afghan refugees first entered Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, with another big influx after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021.
The Pakistani government already deported 757,008 undocumented Afghans back to Afghanistan last year, under the “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” launched in October 2023.
Most of the Afghans in Pakistan live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, which are areas bordering Afghanistan. They are said to be hard-working and have adjusted and assimilated well amongst their Pashtun brethren in Pakistan.
However, with a deteriorating law and order situation and a rise in attacks on Pakistani security forces in the tribal areas, Pakistan is facing a tense security situation. This has meant that the Afghan refugee population in the country is under an increased spotlight and scrutiny and often blamed for the problems of the country.
Human rights
Human rights lawyers and campaigners in Pakistan have slammed the government’s aggressive removals policy towards the long term Afghan residents of the country.
Amina Masood, the chairperson of Defence of Human Rights in Pakistan, and former Pakistani Senator Farhatullah Babar are petitioning the Supreme Court of Pakistan to halt the government’s crackdown and expulsion of un-documented Afghans in the country.
“The deportation of Afghans from Pakistan in this way is in-human, as in most cases,these are people who have lived in Pakistan for over forty years. We should be giving citizenship to these people, not expelling or deporting them in this way. As Muslims, as neighbours and as humans, we should not be deporting Afghans from Pakistan in this way.” said a passionate Amina Masood.
“Furthermore, there are provisions in the constitution of Pakistan, that any person found in Pakistan, should be able to remain in the country on humanitarian grounds.”
Reacting to the Afghan Embassy’s statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry called the remarks about mistreatment of Afghan nationals as “misplaced”. In a statement, the Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson, Shafqat Ali Khan, urged the Taliban government in Kabul to “do more” to create “conducive conditions” in Afghanistan so that returnees could fully integrate back into Afghan society.
