2023-11-04 09:36:05
Against the background of threatened mass deportations from Pakistan, according to government figures, more than 200,000 Afghans have now left the South Asian country. The “repatriation process” is going smoothly, said the acting Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti to the German Press Agency on Saturday. The numbers related to the period of the past few weeks since the nuclear power announced that it wanted to deport refugees.
The Pakistani government recently announced that it would deport refugees without residence status and gave them a deadline of November 1st to leave the country voluntarily. The measure is primarily aimed at Afghans from the neighboring country, which is dominated by the radical Islamic Taliban, who make up the largest proportion of migrants who enter the country illegally in Pakistan. The Pakistani government’s plans are raising spirits ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for February.
The interior ministry of the Taliban ruling Afghanistan reported that around 57,000 Afghans were “forcibly deported” from Friday evening to Saturday morning. According to Pakistani government figures, around 4.4 million Afghan refugees were currently living in Pakistan, 1.7 million of them without valid documents.
Meanwhile, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned that around 200 Afghan media workers in Pakistan were at risk of deportation. Sending the journalists back would endanger their lives, RSF warned. After the Taliban came to power in the summer of 2021, numerous reporters fled abroad and also to Pakistan for fear of repression.
Pakistan is currently struggling with increased attacks by militant groups, including the Pakistan Taliban (TTP). Despite ideological proximity, the TTP is independent of the Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan. However, Pakistan accuses the Taliban ruling Afghanistan of providing protection to the TTP on its soil.
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