A leading rights group said the country’s authorities have intensified pressure on Afghan refugees to go back to neighbouring Afghanistan, where they risk persecution by the Taliban.
“Pakistani officials should immediately stop coercing Afghans to return home and give those facing expulsion the opportunity to seek protection,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), yesterday.
“The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should prevent any reprisals against returning Afghans and reverse their abusive policies against women and girls.”
Pakistan set a March 31 deadline for the deportation of all foreigners living illegally in the country. Most of them are Afghans.
The HRW appeal came a month after the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said that Pakistan has stepped up arrests of Afghan citizens in Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi for forced expulsion.
However, Pakistan has dismissed the allegation by Kabul, saying that the authorities were only trying to facilitate conditions for the swift return of Afghans to their home country.
More than 500,000 Afghans who fled the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 have been living without papers in Pakistan, thousands of them waiting for resettlement in the United States and elsewhere.
In January, US President Donald Trump paused American refugee programmes for at least three months and since then, around 20,000 Afghans who were awaiting resettlement in Pakistan are now in limbo. — AP
