More than 620,000 Afghans have been expelled from Pakistan since the deportation drive began last year.
ISLAMABAD: More than 13,000 Afghan nationals have been expelled in the past 10 days as a drive to target foreigners residing illegally in Pakistan continues, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said on Saturday, taking the total number of deported Afghans to more than 620,000.
Pakistan began forcibly deporting Afghans last year after a surge in suicide bombings that it says, without providing evidence, are the work of Afghans and that Afghans are also involved in smuggling, militant violence and other crimes.
Cash-strapped Pakistan, dealing with record inflation and a tough bailout program by the International Monetary Fund last year, has also argued that illegal immigration has been draining the country’s resources for decades.
“The repatriation of illegally residing Afghan nationals continues with 620,981 Afghans having returned to their home country so far,” Radio Pakistan said in a tally on Saturday.
“From the 11th to the 21st of this month [June]A total of 13,815 Afghans, including 5,014 men, 4,087 women and 4,714 children, have returned to their home country.”
According to government figures, there were more than 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees in Pakistan, about 1.7 million of them illegally, before the government launched an expulsion drive last year.
The majority of migrants are Afghans, many of whom arrived after the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, but many have been in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Islamabad maintains that the deportation drive does not specifically target Afghans, but all those residing in Pakistan illegally.
In October 2023, Pakistan announced the first phase of its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,” which requires “illegal” foreigners to leave the country within 30 days or face forcible repatriation, putting 1.4 million Afghan refugees at risk.
The second phase of the “return plan” will see the expulsion of around 600,000 Afghans holding Pakistan-issued Afghanistan Citizenship Cards (ACC), while the third phase is expected to target those holding UNHCR-issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards.
In April, the Ministry of State Affairs and Border Regions (SAFRON) issued a notification allowing the validity of PoR cards to be extended till June 30 this year.
Before the deportation drive began, people crossed the Pakistan-Afghanistan border every day for work and personal purposes.
The move has led to increased tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who deny that their militants are using Afghan territory to carry out attacks and say Pakistan’s security challenges are internal.
