Sindh to expel 67,000 registered Afghans after Eid

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): More than 67,000 registered Afghan nationals will be repatriated to their homeland after Eidul Fitr from Pakistan’s Sindh province, a media report said on Tuesday.

The decision on expelling Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders came at a high-level meeting in the port city of Karachi, Dawn reported.

Sindh Home Minister Zia Lanjar chaired the meeting, which was informed the ACCs, which were issued in 2017, had no expiry date.

The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying the federal government had decided on scrapping all such ACCs.

Home Secretary Iqbal Memon told participants the Ministry of Interior had decided that the second phase of the repatriation plan would be initiated after Eid.

Zia Lanjar ordered the home secretary to coordinate with relevant stakeholders and the provincial police chief the launch of the repatriation plan.

In the first round of repatriation of “undocumented aliens” in November last year, Pakistan is believed to have expelled more than half a million Afghans.

The refugee deportation campaign has come in for flak from the caretaker government in Kabul and international human rights organisations.

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