December 3, 2023

Greater than 165,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan within the month since its authorities ordered 1.7 million folks to depart or face arrest and deportation, officers stated Thursday.

The bulk rushed to the border prior to now a number of days because the November 1 deadline approached and police started to open up dozens of holding centres to detain arrested Afghans.

Authorities on the Afghan aspect of the border have been overwhelmed by the size of the exodus as they try and course of these returning — a few of whom are setting foot in Afghanistan for the primary time of their lives.

“We’re consistently involved with them (Pakistani authorities) asking for extra time. Folks should be allowed to return with dignity,” the Taliban authorities’s refugees minister Khalil Haqqani advised AFP.

“They need to not give Afghans a tough time, they need to not make extra enemies,” he stated at a brief processing centre, which opened in a single day Wednesday.

Taliban authorities arrange the centre a number of kilometres from a border crossing, in addition to camps for households with nowhere to go, after a bottleneck there sparked an “emergency scenario” for 1000’s of stranded folks, an official stated.

On the largest border crossing at Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officers labored into the early hours of Thursday to clear a queue of 28,000 people who stretched for seven kilometres (4 miles).

Simply over 129,000 have fled from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial house division stated, whereas a complete of 38,100 have crossed by Chaman in Balochistan province, border officers there advised AFP.

Tens of millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan in current many years, fleeing a collection of violent conflicts, together with an estimated 600,000 for the reason that Taliban authorities seized energy in August 2021 and imposed its harsh interpretation of Islamic legislation.

Pakistan has stated the deportations are to guard its “welfare and safety” after a pointy rise in assaults, which the federal government blames on militants working from Afghanistan.

Analysts say it is probably a strain tactic to power the Taliban authorities to cooperate on safety points.

The Taliban authorities has known as on Pakistani authorities to provide Afghan residents extra time to depart with dignity, whereas denying that refugees are accountable for instability.

The expulsion of undocumented Afghans, nonetheless, has widespread assist from Pakistanis, analysts say, with a protracted refugee presence placing a heavy burden on the nation’s infrastructure.

Human Rights Watch has stated Afghans awaiting resettlement to the USA, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada after fleeing the Taliban authorities are liable to deportation after their Pakistan visas expired.


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