The Pakistani government plans to deport illegal migrants on a large scale. The approximately two million Afghans in the country would be particularly affected. Tens of thousands have already set off – because a deadline is expiring.
Before the start of the announced forced deportations of irregular migrants in Pakistan, a large number of Afghans left for their home country. People crowded into trucks and buses to get to the border and beat a deadline.
Pakistan has given migrants and refugees without residence documents until November 1st to leave the country voluntarily. Otherwise they would have to expect forced deportation and accommodation in newly built centers. According to Pakistani sources, the deadline is part of a broader crackdown on foreigners without registration or documents. However, the measure primarily affects Afghans, who make up the majority of migrants in Pakistan.
In a video message, Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said that the government would only begin staggered deportations from Thursday. Only people who were in the country “completely illegally” would have to leave Pakistan, he said.
Tens of thousands are waiting at the border
As the AFP news agency reported, a few hours before the deadline for leaving the country, tens of thousands of people crowded into kilometer-long queues at the border crossings with the neighboring country. According to a government official, 18,000 refugees were waiting in cars and on the backs of trucks in Torkham in northwestern Pakistan. 5,000 people were reported waiting at the border crossing in Chaman in Balochistan province. Since the departure deadline was announced, more than 100,000 Afghans have already left the country.
After crossing the border, people have to register with Afghan authorities – creating another bottleneck. “Our transit center is designed to process up to 750 people per day and now we are dealing with 7,000,” said International Organization for Migration (IOM) regional coordinator Ziad Salih at the Torkham border crossing. The head of registration there, Samiullah Samoon, spoke of an “emergency situation” and pointed to a lack of water and temporary shelter.
Criticism of Pakistan’s government
The deportation campaign has earned Pakistan criticism from UN agencies, human rights groups and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. According to the UN, more than two million Afghans live undocumented in Pakistan. At least 600,000 of them fled their homes after the Taliban came to power.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch accused Pakistan of relying on threats, abuse and arrests to persuade Afghan asylum seekers without legal status to return. Human Rights Watch called on authorities to drop the deadline and work with the UN refugee agency to register people without documents.
The Pakistani government cited a deterioration in the security situation in the border region as the reason for the deportation plans in view of the increase in suicide attacks, for which it blames militant fighters from Afghanistan.