Pakistani authorities have begun the second phase of a plan to forcibly return hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees to Afghanistan, relocating families who have lived in Pakistan for decades.
According to multiple reports, Pakistani authorities will begin forcibly repatriating around 800,000 Afghans from Pakistan as soon as Sunday, following a first phase in which about 541,000 were expelled in November last year.
Human rights groups had warned against the second phase of the plan, announced in April, saying they feared many Afghans’ lives would be at risk if sent to Afghanistan, where the Taliban now hold the majority leadership in the country.
“This decision puts at risk the lives of more than 800,000 Afghan refugees across Pakistan and risks triggering a new wave of harassment and detention after the holy month of Ramadan,” James Jenion, refugee and migrant rights activist at Amnesty International, said in an earlier statement.
“Pakistan’s ‘repatriation plan’ violates refugee law and international human rights law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, and puts the lives of all Afghan refugees at risk.”
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Amnesty said Pakistan’s plan to forcibly repatriate Afghan refugees has three parts: The first plan, implemented last year, saw all undocumented Afghan refugees expelled from Pakistan.
The second phase, currently underway, will see the deportation of all refugees holding Pakistan-issued Afghanistan Citizenship Cards (ACC).
The third phase, which has yet to begin, will see the expulsion of all Afghans holding a UNHCR-issued Proof of Registration (PoR) card.
Refugees who fled Western Sahara due to war insist they will return.
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Amnesty International estimates that there are currently 800,000 ACC card holders, and a further 1.3 million Afghans who hold PoR cards.
Pakistan’s government has defended its forced expulsion of Afghan refugees, citing domestic security concerns and an economy that has been struggling for the past year.
The Afghan refugee community in Pakistan has a long history and deep roots in the country dating back decades. There are more than three million Afghan refugees in the country, with communities located not only in the border areas with Afghanistan but also in Pakistani cities such as Islamabad and Karachi.
Pakistan has never signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which protects refugee rights but lacks domestic legal protections for refugees.
The second phase of the refugee crackdown comes amid a deterioration in relations between Islamabad and Kabul in recent months. In April, Pakistan carried out a series of airstrikes on Afghan territory, killing at least eight people, according to Afghan officials.
Islamabad claimed the attack was an “intelligence-based counter-terrorism operation in the border areas inside Afghanistan.”
