Kabul, 17 April 2024 (TDI): The second phase of Afghan deportation from Pakistan has officially started. On the first day of the second phase, Tuesday, a total of 50 individuals were expelled.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation of Afghanistan continues to assure full attention to the challenges faced by the returned migrants. Since September 2023, around 375000 Afghans have been forcibly expelled from the country.
Ali Reza Karimi, an expert in the field of migration, said: ‘We urge the Islamic Emirate to urgently engage with high-ranking officials of the United Nations in Pakistan, as well as the NGOs and offices responsible for migrants there, to have meetings that could convince the Pakistani authorities that deporting them to Afghanistan could be a major mistake.’
In a statement released on Tuesday, the organization, Doctors Without Borders, stated that many of the migrants being expelled from Pakistan are Afghans who have been there for decades.
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The Doctors Without Borders statement regarding Second phase of Afghan deportation mentioned that for many Afghans, this return entails packing belongings and transporting them by horse, cart, motorbike, and collectively traveling to a country currently grappling with widespread poverty, inadequate health services, and increasing restrictions on women.
The deportation process, carried out in coordination with relevant authorities, saw Afghan migrants being repatriated to their home country.
Some Afghan migrants residing in Pakistan find Islamabad’s policies towards migrants to be spiteful and are calling for Islamabad to reconsider their deportation.
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Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. However, the recent rise in violence and the return of the Taliban to power in 2021 have strained relations between the two nations.
Pakistan claims a significant number of undocumented Afghans reside within its borders, contributing to security concerns.
Previously, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council, and nine other organizations expressed concerns over the second phase of Afghan migrant expulsions from Pakistan.
According to statistics, Pakistan has accommodated around 4.4 million Afghans, of which 500,000 have returned to their country so far.
