The head of the UN\u2019s refugee agency in Pakistan on Sunday expressed concern as the departure deadline for Afghan Citizenship Card (ACC) holders draws closer, warning that the decision has \u201cshaken\u201d the Afghan community.<\/p>\n
As part of the government\u2019s plan to repatriate all illegal foreigners, March 31 was officially set as the deadline for ACC holders to leave Pakistan voluntarily, with a renewed warning by the interior ministry that mass deportations would commence afterwards.<\/p>\n
In an Eidul Fitr message, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative for Pakistan Philippa Candler expressed her concerns as Pakistani officials have ruled out any change in the deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cPakistan hosts 1.52 million registered Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers, an estimated 800,000 Afghan citizenship holders, along with others living in the country without official recognition,\u201d she said in the message, titled \u2018A Call for Compassion: Afghan Refugees in Pakistan and the Path to Hope\u2019.<\/p>\n
The UNHCR representative said she visited an Afghan family last week who had sought refuge here in 2022 after fleeing Afghanistan in a hurry, leaving behind everything they knew in search of peace and safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was heartbreaking to see how fearful they were to be forced to go back. Their hopes and dreams have been shattered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Candler added that Afghans who entered Pakistan were part of the workforce, started businesses and contributed to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver time, Afghan refugees have become woven into the fabric of Pakistan\u2019s society,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite their contributions to Pakistan, Afghans often face discrimination, limited access to formal employment, and a lack of legal rights that makes their lives insecure and pushes many to the fringes of society.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UNHCR representative said the latest directives from the government represented a significant disruption to the fabric of many communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cDislocation from communities that have welcomed them and a possible forced return to Afghanistan, when there has been little chance for planning on how to rebuild their lives there, are unlikely to be sustainable,\u201d Philippa Candler said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, officials in Khyber district say that temporary camps have been set up at Landi Kotal and also in Peshawar to facilitate refugees\u2019 repatriation.<\/p>\n
Also in Afghanistan, the Taliban authorities have made arrangements to welcome refugees at Torkham, Qureshi Badloon, a spokesman for the Nangarhar government told Dawn.com.<\/p>\n
Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, in a meeting with Pakistan\u2019s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq in Kabul last week, had asked Pakistan to give more time to the ACC holders as repatriation of so many people could create difficulties for his government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The head of the UN\u2019s refugee agency in Pakistan on Sunday expressed concern as the departure deadline for Afghan Citizenship Card (ACC) holders draws closer, warning that the decision has \u201cshaken\u201d the Afghan community. As part of the government\u2019s plan to repatriate all illegal foreigners, March 31 was officially set as the deadline for ACC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7627","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\/7627","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=7627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7629,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions\/7629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}