KARACHI: Convoys of Afghans pressured to leave Pakistan are driving to the border, fearing the “humiliation” of arrest, as the government’s crackdown on migrants sees widespread public support.
Islamabad wants to deport 800,000 Afghans after canceling their residence permits — the second phase of a deportation program which has already pushed out around 800,000 undocumented Afghans since 2023.
According to the UN refugee agency, more than 24,665 Afghans have left Pakistan since April 1, 10,741 of whom were deported.
“People say the police will come and carry out raids. That is the fear. Everyone is worried about that,” Rahmat Ullah, an Afghan migrant in the megacity Karachi told AFP.
“For a man with a family, nothing is worse than seeing the police take his women from his home. Can anything be more humiliating than this? It would be better if they just killed us instead,” added Nizam Gull, as he backed his belongings and prepared to return to Afghanistan.
Abdul Shah Bukhari, a community leader in one of the largest informal Afghan settlements in the coastal city, has watched multiple buses leave daily for the Afghan border, about 700 kilometers away.
The maze of makeshift homes has grown over decades with the arrival of families fleeing successive wars in Afghanistan. But now, he said “people are leaving voluntarily.”
“What is the need to cause distress or harassment?” said Bukhari.
Ghulam Hazrat, a truck driver, said he reached the Chaman border crossing with Afghanistan after days of police harassment in Karachi.
“We had to leave behind our home. We were being harassed every day.”
In Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the Afghan border, police climb mosque minarets to order Afghans to leave: “The stay of Afghan nationals in Pakistan has expired. They are requested to return to Afghanistan voluntarily.”
Police warnings are not only aimed at Afghans, but also at Pakistani landlords.
“Two police officers came to my house on Sunday and told me that if there are any Afghan nationals living here they should be evicted,” Farhan Ahmad told AFP.
Human Rights Watch has slammed “abusive tactics” used to pressure Afghans to return to their country, “where they risk persecution by the Taliban and face dire economic conditions.”
In September 2023, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans poured across the border into Afghanistan in the days leading up to a deadline to leave, after weeks of police raids and the demolition of homes.
After decades of hosting millions of Afghan refugees, there is widespread support among the Pakistani public for the deportations.
“They eat here, live here, but are against us. Terrorism is coming from there (Afghanistan), and they should leave; that is their country. We did a lot for them,” Pervaiz Akhtar, a university teacher, told AFP at a market in the capital Islamabad.
“Come with a valid visa, and then come and do business with us,” said Muhammad Shafiq, a 55-year-old businessman.
His views echo the Pakistani government, which for months has blamed rising violence in the border regions on “Afghan-backed perpetrators” and argued that the country can no longer support such a large migrant population.
However, analysts have said the deportation drive is political.
Relations between Kabul and Islamabad have soured since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
“The timing and manner of their deportation indicates it is part of Pakistan’s policy of mounting pressure on the Taliban,” Maleeha Lodhi, the former permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN told AFP.
“This should have been done in a humane, voluntary and gradual way.”
Pressure builds on Afghans fearing arrest in Pakistan
https://arab.news/mfuug
Pressure builds on Afghans fearing arrest in Pakistan
- According to the UN refugee agency, more than 24,665 Afghans have left Pakistan since April 1, 10,741 of whom were deported
Pro-Palestine demonstrators mark Nakba anniversary with rally in London
- Protesters demand UK government action to halt Gaza conflict
- Mass rally passes central London landmarks, including Downing Street
LONDON: Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday to mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba.
The word, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948. The UN estimates more than half the Palestinian population was permanently displaced.
The march, which was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, began at Embankment and passed key landmarks, including Big Ben and Downing Street, with protesters calling on the UK government to take action over the war in Gaza.
The PSC said the protest aimed to “mark the 77th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba and demand our government take action to end the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land,” The Independent reported.
This year’s commemoration came amid reports that the Trump administration has been in talks with Libya about resettling up to a million Palestinians from Gaza in exchange for billions of dollars.
The proposal has drawn comparisons to the Nakba and widespread international criticism.
A PSC spokesperson said they expected around 100,000 attendees from across the UK, describing the turnout as larger than recent demonstrations. “We expected around 100,000 people to attend the London march,” the spokesperson said.
However, London’s Metropolitan Police estimated the crowd at around 20,000 and enforced Public Order Act conditions that restricted protesters to designated areas.
A small counter-protest organized by Stop The Hate gathered on the Strand, waving Israeli flags and remaining in an area outlined by police at the north end of Waterloo Bridge.
Pro-Palestinian protests in the UK reached their height following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel, and the subsequent Israeli military response in Gaza, in which 53,000 people have been killed.
Nearly all the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.
That November, a march held on Armistice Day drew an estimated 300,000 people, the largest to date since the war began.
Negotiations to end the war have so far stalled, with both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisting proposed ceasefires. Netanyahu’s government recently approved new plans for further attacks in Gaza.
Humanitarian agencies and global leaders have continued to call on Israel to allow the delivery of vital aid into the besieged territory.
Also on Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for increased pressure “to halt the massacre in Gaza” at an Arab League summit in Iraq, while UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Baghdad meeting “we need a permanent ceasefire, now.”
Members of major UK supermarket chain vote to boycott Israeli goods
- Motion calls for Co-op Group to take ‘all Israeli products off the shelves’
- Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Any trade with Israeli agricultural firms risks supporting oppression
LONDON: Members of one of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains have voted to end all trading with Israel at its annual general meeting.
The motion was put to members of the Co-op Group in light of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, and its blockade of the Palestinian enclave preventing vital humanitarian aid reaching civilians.
In the motion, members called on the Co-op’s management to “show moral courage and leadership” by taking “all Israeli products off the shelves.”
Paul Neill, an activist who helped put the motion to a vote, said: “We are delighted to say that the motion was passed by a clear majority of Co-op members, reflecting widespread condemnation among the British public for the actions of Israel.
“This is a historic moment for a UK supermarket chain and puts down a marker for other supermarkets and retailers.”
In a press release, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign — which has been running a “Don’t Buy Apartheid” campaign for shops and restaurants to avoid Israeli goods and those of companies linked to the country — cited Israel’s “genocide in Gaza and decades of oppression of Palestinian people by military occupation and apartheid” as key drivers of the vote to sever ties, and called on the Co-op to implement the motion and cease selling Israeli products in its stores.
Lewis Backon, campaigns officer for the PSC, said: “Meaningful solidarity actions could not be more urgent as Palestinians continue to face Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, and its military attacks, land grabs and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
“The Co-op AGM vote shows ordinary people in this country are committed to the cause of justice and freedom for Palestine in their everyday lives and refuse to support Israel’s apartheid economy.
“The Co-op must now listen to its members, and implement the motion by taking all Israeli goods off the shelves.”
The PSC said many Israeli goods “such as avocados, peppers, herbs and dates” are common in UK supermarkets.
“Millions in Britain have taken to the streets to oppose Israel’s genocide and the UK government’s complicity in it through military, diplomatic and financial support,” it added.
Israeli agricultural companies — including Hadiklaim, Mehadrin and Edom — “operate farms and packing houses in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank,” the PSC said.
It added that the Co-op had previously pledged to stop stocking goods from illegal settlements, but that any business done with Israeli agricultural exporters “supports their role as participants in Israel’s colonisation and military occupation of Palestinian land.
“Moreover, campaigners point out that these companies benefit from Israel’s systematic destruction of Palestinian agriculture through exploiting the Palestinian captive market, and contribute tax revenue to the Israeli state, which in turn helps it fund its genocide and apartheid against Palestinians.”
According to an International Court of Justice decision last July, the “appropriation of Palestinian resources like water is a war crime,” the PSC said.
“All states have an obligation not to render aid or assistance to Israel in these violations of international law.”
Trump says he will call Putin on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine
- Trump said the subject will be “STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH”
KYIV: President Donald Trump says he will speak by phone Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.
Trump said in a social media post Saturday that the subject will be “STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH.”
The American president said he also then plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of NATO.
“HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
Italian government tells Israel: ‘Enough with the attacks’ in Gaza
- “We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said
- “Let’s come to a ceasefire, let’s free the hostages”
ROME: Italy’s government on Saturday upped its exhortations to Israel to stop deadly military strikes in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: “Enough with the attacks.”
“We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said during a trip to Sicily, in remarks relayed by his spokesman.
“Let’s come to a ceasefire, let’s free the hostages, but let’s leave people who are victims of Hamas alone,” he was cited as saying.
Israel’s military has announced it is in the “initial stages” of a new offensive in Gaza aimed at defeating Hamas.
Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month truce in its war against Hamas triggered by the group’s October 2023 attack.
More than 100 people in Gaza were killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and another 10 on Saturday, according to the Gaza civil defense agency.
International condemnation has escalated over Israel’s military actions, and its blockage of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, where more than two million people lived before the war started.
Israel’s army said the goal of its latest offensive is to “seize control of areas within the Gaza Strip.”
Macron urges regional investment as Albania nears EU goal
- “Here in Albania, clearly, you have the entry point in this region of Western Balkans,” Macron said
- Albania entered talks to join the European Union in 2022
TIRANA: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday invited foreign investors to come to “stable” Europe, including to Albania, which he sees obtaining EU entry in 2027.
Europe “is a stable and reliable place,” he told economic forum “Priority Europe,” organized by the Future Investment Initiative (FII) institute of advertising executive Richard Attias.
“And in this crazy world, don’t underestimate the strengths of such qualities,” Macron said at the Tirana event aimed at connecting European leaders and innovators with sovereign wealth funds and Middle East, Asia and US business leaders.
“Here in Albania, clearly, you have the entry point in this region of Western Balkans, but much more broadly it’s a key point in the Mediterranean place and Europe.
“And in two years to come, as now he has a clear mandate, he will join the EU,” added Macron, referring to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Albania entered talks to join the European Union in 2022 and Rama said that the process could conclude with the country joining in 2027 if all goes to plan. “That would be incredible,” said Rama in an interview with AFP.
The country of some three million is by far the most pro-EU in the Balkans. In 2024, 92 percent of those questioned in a poll said they would vote “yes” if a referendum were held on EU membership-compared to 40 percent in Serbia.
The challenges of meeting accession requirements remain sizeable, notably in terms of combating corruption.
Several ministers and several senior officials, former president Ilir Meta, and the mayor of Tirana — a close Rama associate — are currently in detention on suspicion of embezzlement.
