Pakistan has started to deport documented Afghan refugees ahead of its deadline for them to leave, according to the United Nations, in a move that could see more than 1 million Afghans expelled from the country.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s decision follows the interior ministry\u2019s announcement on July 31 that Proof of Registration (PoR) cardholders \u2014 the last category of Afghans legally residing in Pakistan without visas \u2014 became unlawful residents after their cards expired on June 30.<\/p>\n
However, the federal government has informed the provinces that the formal repatriation and deportation of over 1.3 million Afghan refugees holding PoR cards will begin on September 1.<\/p>\n
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it had received reports of arrests and expulsions of legally registered Afghans across the country before Pakistan\u2019s September 1 deadline for them to leave.<\/p>\n
The UNHCR said that sending the Afghans back in this way was a breach of Pakistan\u2019s international obligations.<\/p>\n
\u201cUNHCR is calling on the government to stop the forcible return and adopt a humane approach to ensure voluntary, gradual, and dignified return of Afghans,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The voluntary return of the documented refugees shall commence forthwith, said a Pakistan\u2019s interior ministry order seen by Reuters. It said the formal deportation process will start after the deadline.<\/p>\n
But Qaisar Khan Afridi, a spokesman for the UNHCR, told Reuters on Wednesday that hundreds of legally registered Afghan refugees had already been detained and deported to Afghanistan from August 1 to August 4.<\/p>\n
The interior ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for a comment.<\/p>\n
More than 1.3 million Afghans hold documentation known as PoR cards, while 750,000 more have another form of registration known as an Afghan Citizen Card.<\/p>\n
Many Afghans have been settled in Pakistan since the 1980s, to escape cycles of war in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch massive and hasty return could jeopardise the lives and freedom of Afghan refugees, while also risking instability not only in Afghanistan but across the region,\u201d UNHCR said.<\/p>\n
Pakistani authorities have said that Islamabad wants all Afghan nationals to leave, except for those who have valid visas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan has started to deport documented Afghan refugees ahead of its deadline for them to leave, according to the United Nations, in a move that could see more than 1 million Afghans expelled from the country. The country\u2019s decision follows the interior ministry\u2019s announcement on July 31 that Proof of Registration (PoR) cardholders \u2014 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11195,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11193\/revisions\/11195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}