2023-10-31 20:50:42
The Pakistani government has identified a deteriorating security situation and is forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave the country. There is hardly any progress at the border – people in Afghanistan also have to register once more – which poses further dangers.
A few hours before the expiry of an exit deadline for 1.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, tens of thousands of people crowded into kilometer-long queues at the border crossings to the neighboring country on Tuesday. In Torkham, northwestern Pakistan, 18,000 people were waiting in cars and on the backs of trucks, according to a government official. 5,000 people were reported waiting at the border crossing in Chaman in Balochistan province.
After crossing the border, people have to register with Afghan authorities – which created another bottleneck. “Our transit center is designed to process up to 750 people per day and now we are dealing with 7,000,” said International Organization for Migration (IOM) regional coordinator Ziad Salih at the Torkham border crossing. The head of registration there, Samiullah Samoon, spoke of an “emergency situation” and referred to a lack of water and temporary shelter.
Pakistan blames Afghans for increasing violence
Pakistan had given Afghans who the government believes are living in the country illegally until November 1st to leave voluntarily. Otherwise they would have to expect forced deportation and accommodation in centers newly built for this purpose. The government cited a deterioration in the security situation in the border region as the reason for the deportation in view of the increase in suicide attacks, for which it blames militant fighters from Afghanistan. Since the departure deadline was announced, more than 100,000 Afghans have already left the country.
In a video message, Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said the government would begin staggered deportations from Thursday. Only people who were in the country “completely illegally” would have to leave Pakistan, he said. The radical Islamic Taliban government in Kabul had previously described the deportation order as “cruel and barbaric”.
Hardly any security in Afghanistan following deportation
Human rights organizations criticized the Pakistani government’s actions and called for more time for people, some of whom had lived in the country for decades, to leave the country. The situation in Afghanistan remains dangerous for many refugees and deportation would expose them to significant security risks, said Human Rights Watch.
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