ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan has conveyed to the US that it would deport all Afghans awaiting resettlement in America if the deadline set for their relocation were not met or their cases were turned down.
The message was conveyed through the diplomatic channels after President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending the Afghan refugee settlement program for 90 days.
Thousands of Afghans, who worked for the US and other western countries during their campaign against the Afghan Taliban, fled to Pakistan and sought a temporary stay.
Pakistan accepted the US and its allies request to allow them stay in the country for a short period before they fly out of Islamabad for their respective destinations.
The US and its allies promised special immigration visas to all such Afghans who worked for them.
However, the process of their relocation was painstakingly slow during the Biden administration time.
The previous US government had agreed to relocate all Afghans eligible for a special immigration visa by September 2025.
However, with President Trump suspending the program, meeting the deadline seems to be impossible.
Pakistan is worried that such Afghans may never be relocated to the US given the tough anti-immigration policy being pursued by the current administration.
That was the reason that it decided to convey in unambiguous terms to the Trump administration that it would not allow these Afghans to stay in Pakistan beyond September 2025.
Neither side has shared the exact number of stranded Afghans in Pakistan but some estimates suggest that it is between 15,000 and 25,000.
At a recent interview with TRT World, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had confirmed that Pakistan would evict all Afghans if they were not relocated to the US on time.
“If any refugee who was undertaken to be taken by another country after due process no matter the timeline – if it doesn’t happen and the country refuses, then for us, that will be an illegal immigrant in Pakistan, and we might be forced to send such refugee back to their original country, which is Afghanistan,” Dar said.
However, the foreign minister left the door open for talks with Washington to resolve the situation.
Pakistan has overall decided to tighten policy towards the Afghan refugees. It is contemplating to ensure repatriation of all Afghans living in the country.
The campaign first was launched in October 2023 against the undocumented Afghans but the government now wants to extend this to all Afghans irrespective of their legal status.
The reason behind Pakistan’s push for eviction of Afghans stems from its strained ties with the Taliban regime.
