Looming deadline: Thousands of Afghans face deportation
Islamabad has agreed to give Afghans some legal status to stay there: Kabul.
KABUL:
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans face the threat of deportation back to their war-torn country from Pakistan once a deadline expires this Saturday, but Kabul is crying foul over the move.
Pakistan is home to 1.7 million refugees and hundreds of thousands more unregistered migrants from its neighbour, according to the UNHCR.
But Islamabad says it cannot be expected to tolerate illegal migrants, and 400,000 undocumented Afghans in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), face the imminent prospect of removal.
The UNHCR describes the situation of Afghans in Pakistan as the “largest and most protracted refugee crisis in the world” and warned that the question of how to deal with it was becoming ‘increasingly politicised’.
K-P Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said law enforcement agencies have been told to compile lists of illegal Afghans and once the June 30-deadline passes, orders will be issued for their arrest, appearance in court and subsequent deportation to Afghanistan.
“No country allows illegal immigrants, how is it possible to legalise something which is illegal?” Hussain said.
But Afghans are nervous about welcoming home so many people. The government in Kabul denied that expulsions would take place.
Afghan refugee ministry spokesman Islamuddin Jurat said the two sides had agreed to solve the issue and give the Afghans “some legal status to stay there”.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2012.
___________________________________________
[poll id="801"]
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans face the threat of deportation back to their war-torn country from Pakistan once a deadline expires this Saturday, but Kabul is crying foul over the move.
Pakistan is home to 1.7 million refugees and hundreds of thousands more unregistered migrants from its neighbour, according to the UNHCR.
But Islamabad says it cannot be expected to tolerate illegal migrants, and 400,000 undocumented Afghans in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), face the imminent prospect of removal.
The UNHCR describes the situation of Afghans in Pakistan as the “largest and most protracted refugee crisis in the world” and warned that the question of how to deal with it was becoming ‘increasingly politicised’.
K-P Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said law enforcement agencies have been told to compile lists of illegal Afghans and once the June 30-deadline passes, orders will be issued for their arrest, appearance in court and subsequent deportation to Afghanistan.
“No country allows illegal immigrants, how is it possible to legalise something which is illegal?” Hussain said.
But Afghans are nervous about welcoming home so many people. The government in Kabul denied that expulsions would take place.
Afghan refugee ministry spokesman Islamuddin Jurat said the two sides had agreed to solve the issue and give the Afghans “some legal status to stay there”.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2012.
___________________________________________
[poll id="801"]