A few months before the parliamentary elections in Pakistan, the authorities are taking tough action. Their plans for mass deportations of refugees have met with sharp criticism. Many Afghans don’t know where to go.
Under pressure from mass deportations from Pakistan, more than 300,000 Afghans have now left the country. Authorities in the border regions reported this to the German Press Agency. The numbers refer to the past few weeks since the announcement at the beginning of October that refugees would be deported. Around 4,000 people are currently crossing the important Torcham border crossing towards Afghanistan every day.
The Pakistani government had 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 ruled by the Taliban, who make up the largest proportion of irregular migrants in Pakistan. According to government figures, around 4.4 million Afghan refugees live in the country, 1.7 million of them without valid documents.
Officially, the government in Islamabad cites security concerns as the reason for the deportation campaign, which comes just months before parliamentary elections in February. In addition to a severe economic crisis, Pakistan is currently struggling with a strengthening of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and blames unregistered refugees for this. Human rights activists are now accusing the authorities of using raids and arrests against Afghans who are registered in the country.
Source: Stern
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