Hundreds of Afghan nationals deported from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province — official

Afghanistan's and Pakistani nationals gather to enter Afghanistan as they wait for the reopening of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing point in Chaman on September 2, 2021. (AFP)

• The United Nations has urged the Pakistani authorities to accept Afghan refugees who may be at risk in their own country
• Pakistani officials say the government has decided to crack down on illegal immigrants and asylum seekers arriving on its territory

KARACHI: Pakistani authorities have deported hundreds of Afghan nationals who illegally entered the country to take refuge in Balochistan and Sindh provinces following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, officials confirmed while talking to Arab News on Friday.
The United Nations has urged Pakistan to accept Afghan refugees who may be at risk in their country.
UN refugee commissioner Filippo Grandi recently told a group of journalists in Islamabad he was appealing to the “humanitarian spirit” in Pakistan to be sympathetic to Afghan nationals with special protection needs.
“All illegal immigrants who entered Pakistan without legal documents and were residing in Balochistan have been deported to their home country,” Liaquat Shahwani, Balochistan government’s spokesperson, informed.
Shahwani added it was the stated policy of the federal and provincial administrations to deport illegal immigrants.
Pakistan experienced the first Afghan refugee influx over four decades ago when the Soviet Army invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
According to the UN refugee agency, 1.4 million Afghans still live in the 54 camps across the country despite the voluntary repatriation programs.
Afghan refugee settlements are also located on the outskirts of large urban centers like Karachi and Islamabad. Official estimates suggest there may be one million more unregistered Afghan nationals in the country as well.
Hundreds of new Afghan refugees arrived in Pakistan after the Taliban consolidated their political control over the neighboring state last month amid claims of strict border management by Pakistani officials. Addressing at a news conference in Karachi a few weeks ago, information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the country would not allow illegal immigrants like it did in 1979.
The Balochistan government spokesperson told Arab News that a high-level meeting on the province’s security situation was held two days ago in which the participants discussed the fresh Afghan refugee influx.
He said the meeting decided to “carry out a crackdown on illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.”
“Apart from that, strict monitoring of the province’s entry points will also be ensured to prevent illegal immigrants from reaching Balochistan,” Shahwani said while refusing to share the exact number of deportees.
Kashif Haidery, a social activist in the province, said over 5,000 Afghan nationals had taken refuge in Quetta and a majority of them had either been deported or went back on their own.
“Afghan refugees arrived in Quetta after the Taliban takeover to save their lives,” he said. “Many of them faced the accommodation problem and stayed at Imambargahs and marriage halls on humanitarian grounds. Local welfare organizations provided them food on a daily basis.”
Speaking to Arab News, Zahid Pakhtun, a social activist in Balochistan, said that those entering from Afghanistan had not gone to a refugee camp in the province.
“No refugee went to the camps,” he said. “They either stayed in Quetta or moved on to Karachi since they wanted jobs or travel to the United States or Europe for asylum.”
Hundreds of Afghan nationals, who traveled to Karachi after the fall of the Ashraf Ghani administration in Kabul on August 15, faced a crackdown in recent days and a substantial number of them were sent to the border for deportation.
“The police visited our camp last week and asked the elders to gather the newcomers so they could receive official aid from Pakistan,” Naeem Karimi, a youth living in a camp near Karachi told Arab News, adding that these refugees were rounded up and taken to the Chaman border in eight buses after they gathered to get the government’s assistance.
Saqib Ismail, deputy inspector general of police in Karachi’s district east, where most of the refugees reside, confirmed that illegal immigrants were deported, though he did not share their exact number.
Khairullah Khan, an Afghan refugee who arrived in Karachi with his parents, wife, two sisters and four children from Mazar-i-Sharif earlier this month, said his family had escaped deportation for the time being since he could not reach the camp on time.
“We are here without legal documents and the police are chasing us,” he continued. “The efforts we did and the hardships we faced during our long and painful journey will go in vain if we are sent back.”
Khan said the Afghan nationals arriving in Pakistan should be allowed to stay until the political uncertainty comes to an end in the neighboring country.
“The economic condition has badly deteriorated in Afghanistan,” he added. “None of us crossed the border to be sent back. We are getting two pieces of bread in our meals in Pakistan but at least our lives are safe here.”