Pakistan launches operation against illegal Afghans

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): Pakistan launched a massive operation to deport illegal foreigners, mostly Afghans, on Wednesday when the deadline for voluntary repatriation expired.

In disregard for calls from Kabul and global organisations, including UN agencies, security and administration officials rounded up illegal aliens and moved them to holding centres in various parts of the country.

The unregistered migrants would be kept at the makeshift camps before being deported to their home countries, the government said, ruling out the reversal of the forcible repatriation plan.

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 52,000 illegal foreigners have been identified for a crackdown.

“In fact, we have already started conducting raids on them in different parts of the province,” one senior security official told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the nationwide operation had been initiated under sub-sections 1, 2(c), 2(e)(1) and 2(g) of Section 3 of the Foreigners Act.

As many as 49 holding centres, some capable of accommodating several thousand people, opened across the country to deport illegal Afghan nationals.

In Sindh province, the identification of 200,000  illegal foreigners, including many Afghans, has already been completed. Raids are also ongoing in Punjab and Balochistan in the build-up to deportations.

More than 130,000 Afghans have left Pakistan voluntarily since the announcement of the deadline in early October, say officials in Torkham and Chaman,.

Earlier, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan urged Pakistan and other countries that have hosted millions of Afghans not to forcibly deport them.

A 14-year-old Afghan girl, who AFP did not name for security reasons, said she would stay in Pakistan as long as possible, despite not having legal papers.

Police have already begun demolishing hundreds of illegally built mud homes of Afghans citizens in Islamabad, where dozens of unregistered foreigners have been arrested.

mud

Views: 95