Pakistan’s government has announced a major crackdown on migrants in the country illegally, saying it would expel them starting next month
FILE - An Afghan refugee family return to Afghanistan through Pakistan’s border crossing, Torkham, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. Pakistan’s caretaker Interior Minister on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, asked all illegal immigrants, including Afghans, to go back to their countries voluntarily before October 30 to avoid mass arrest and forced deportation, sending a wave of panic, especially among 1.7 million Afghan refugees living in the Islamic nation without valid documents.
It was unusual for such a major shift in immigration policy to come during a caretaker government, which is intended to tide the country over during interim periods between the end of a five-year National Assembly and elections. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar took power in August and is supposed to rule until elections planned for the end of January.
“We request the Pakistan government not to expel us in such a hasty way and allow us either to live here peacefully, or we should be given at least six months to one year time to go back,” he said. Some 2.4 million Afghans have refugee status, Bugti said, which allows them to get a government ID card that they can use for everyday activities like banking or registering for school.
Hussain was skeptical that any campaign to expel undocumented migrants could be successful any time soon. Raees Khan, 47, another Afghan refugee who said he didn’t feel the need to register with authorites, said he has lived in Peshawar since 2007 and has been working in the transportation industry. He said it would take him much longer than a month to wind down his business and move with his wife and five children.
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