Afghans make up majority of 140,000 leaving Pakistan as deadline set to expire

[November 01, 2023]  By Mushtaq Ali and Asif Shahzad
 
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) -Afghans returning to their Taliban-ruled homeland form the bulk of the 140,000 undocumented immigrants to have left Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday, hours before the expiry of a deadline to leave or face expulsion.    

Afghan citizens wait with their belongings to cross into Afghanistan, after Pakistan gives the last warning to undocumented immigrants to leave, at the Friendship Gate of Chaman Border Crossing along the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border in Balochistan Province, in Chaman, Pakistan October 31, 2023. REUTERS/Abdul Khaliq Achakzai

Pakistan has said it will begin on Thursday an effort to round up and expel any such individuals after setting the deadline in October to begin expelling all undocumented immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans.

A senior official in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bordering Afghanistan said about 104,000 Afghan nationals had left through the main Torkham border crossing during the last two weeks.

"Some of them have been living in Pakistan for more than 30 years without any proof of registration," said Nasir Khan, the deputy commissioner of the area.

An as yet undetermined number have also left by the Chaman border crossing in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

However, Pakistan's interior ministry put the number higher, saying 140,322 of those who had stayed illegally had left.

"A process to arrest the foreigners ... for deportation has started by Nov.1," it said in a statement, while adding that voluntary return would still be encouraged.

Of the more than 4 million Afghans living in Pakistan, the government estimates 1.7 million are undocumented.

Many fled Afghanistan during its decades of internal conflict since the late 1970s, while the Taliban takeover after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021 led to another exodus.

But Pakistan has taken a hardline stance, saying Afghan nationals have been behind militant attacks, smuggling and other crimes in the South Asian nation.

Kabul has dismissed the accusations.

Western embassies, the United Nations and rights groups have protested, urging Pakistan to reconsider.

In the Afghan capital, the Taliban administration asked all countries hosting Afghan refugees to give them more time to prepare for repatriation.

"We call on them not to deport forcefully Afghans without preparation, rather give them enough time and countries should use tolerance," it said in a posting on Afghans in Pakistan and elsewhere on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

It assured Afghans leaving over political concerns that they could return and live peacefully in Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Mushtaq Ali; Writing and reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Additional reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Clarence Fernandez)

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