Over 500 Afghans languishing in Karachi jail freed

As many as 524 Afghan nationals have been freed from Karachi prison on the request of Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, The Express Tribune learnt on Saturday.

Those released from the prison include 54 women and 97 children who were arrested over lack of travelling documents by Sindh police in Karachi, the Afghan embassy said in a statement.

The Afghan nationals would be deported back to their country in line with the court’s order while all necessary documents for their repatriation have been provided by the Afghan counsel general in Karachi, the statement added.

It further said that the transportation and other basic items will be provided to them by the Afghan embassy.

The development came days after a petition was been filed in the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) urging it to restrain the federal government from detaining or forcefully deporting Afghan asylum-seekers.

The petition, which has been filed under Section 9 of the NCHR Act 2012, contends that under the law, those Afghans refugees whose applications for asylum are still pending before the UNHCR can neither be detained nor deported.

Also read: NCHR moved to stop Afghan refugees’ deportation

To do so would violate the principle of non-refoulement which Pakistan is legally bound to respect under international human rights treaties, international customary law and numerous articles of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The petition was filed by Umer Ijaz Gilani, a practicing lawyer and a Pakistani citizen. He made the Federation through interior secretary, DG immigration and passport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretary, Ministry of Safron chief commissioner Afghan refugees, National Database and Registration Authority chairman and the country representative of the United National High Commission for Refugees respondents.

The issue recently caused alarm among the generous and kind-hearted people of Pakistan with the emergence in the media of a picture of children of Afghan refugees locked up in a prison in Sindh. Gilani said that the subsequent statement by Sindh Minister Sharjeel Memon confirmed that at least 129 Afghan female asylum seekers along with 178 children were jailed in the province.