KARACHI: Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Thursday Pakistani authorities would not mistreat Afghan refugees or harass those in possession of legal documents during a meeting with Afghanistan’s ambassador who raised several objections over the conduct of forced deportation of his country’s citizens from Pakistan in recent weeks.
Last month, Pakistani authorities warned foreign nationals residing illegally in the country to leave voluntarily by November 1 or face expulsion. While the Islamabad administration emphasized its decision was not aimed at any specific community, the impending deadline predominantly impacted 1.7 million Afghans living in Pakistan without proper documentation.
Pakistan’s interim government had already maintained some Afghan nationals had been implicated in criminal activities and militancy. However, the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan refuted the claim, saying Afghan refugees were not linked to Pakistan’s security challenges.
As the authorities moved toward a crackdown against undocumented foreigners, there were widespread media reports of refugees facing harassment by police and officials.
“Sardar Ahmad Shakib, Afghanistan’s ambassador in Islamabad, in a meeting with Sarfraz Bugti, Pakistan’s Minister of Interior Affairs, discussed the issue of forced deportation of Afghan refugees, especially the transfer of property and money from their bank accounts, the trapping of thousands of refugees in Torkham and Chaman, and the harassment of refugees, including women and children,” an Afghan authority statement noted after the meeting.
The Afghan envoy took up these issues after several of his countrymen complained to media outlets that circumstances had forced them to sell their possessions for very low rates since they were in a rush to leave Pakistan.
According to the government’s directives, the families of undocumented foreign nationals cannot carry more than Rs50,000 in cash at a time when Pakistan is facing financial woes of its own.
The sheer number of Afghans gathering at Torkham and Chaman border crossings has reached a point where it has become difficult for the immigration authorities to perform biometrics and put their details in the system.
The Afghan authority statement quoted Bugti, who assured that the government would soon announce a proper procedure for the transfer of assets belonging to Afghan nationals. Additionally, the minister pledged to establish more registration centers to expedite the biometric processing of women and children under 14 at Torkham and Chaman borders.
“He assured that the police would treat Afghan refugees with dignity and that Afghans with legal documents would not be harassed,” the statement concluded.
Pakistan’s foreign office confirmed earlier in the day that a crackdown had started against illegal immigrants residing in the country.
“This process will continue in an orderly and phased manner,” said its spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch during her weekly news briefing.
“The decision is in exercise of Pakistan’s sovereign domestic laws, and compliant with applicable international norms and principles,” it added. “It does not apply to individuals who enjoy refugee status, who will continue to be generously hosted by Pakistan.”
